I was depressed and paranoid after gaining three stone – I thought I looked like a whale, reveals Peter Andre
PETER Andre has revealed he was left struggling with body image after gaining three stone in weight.
The 50-year-old admitted it was tough to live up to the famous pictures of himself with a rippling six pack at the start of his career.
And he said he was still struggling with ‘psychological issues’ after he was snapped on holiday after his weight gain.
Pete explained that during a time in his thirties he ate “pizza, Chinese, anything I could get my hands on, all day, every day”.
But it wasn’t until he saw a picture of himself that things hit home.
He told OK! Magazine: “I was alone on a beach in the Bahamas, so I took my shirt off and went in the water. The sea was really rough and when I came out I remember I was gasping. There was some paparazzi photographer in the trees and he must have caught me breathing out.
“The photo got sent all around the world and it was the first time people had seen me like that since the early days. I remember the headlines – ‘Andre piles on the pack’. People who were heavier than me might have thought, ‘But he looks alright’, but in my mind I looked like Brendan Fraser in The Whale. We never see what other people see.
“Now, I’ve got this psychological link to something and it’s stopping me just freely walking around the beach – I just won’t do it. It’s ridiculous.”
Pete added: “After that time on the beach, I thought, ‘I’ve got to do something’ and I started on all the fad diets – low carbs, no fats etc and you know what? For about five years, I was completely depressed because food was the one thing that I loved.”
He says his life changed when he started dating wife Emily and he is now at peace with his appearance.
The star has now written a book called It’s Fine to help people stuck in an unhappy loop of dieting.