Peter also opens up to The Sun’s Clemmie on his relationship with Katie Price, his children and why he thinks social media should be banned for under-16s.
Although this is in part down to his half-Cypriot heritage and good genes, he also trains hard in the gym five days a week and eats fresh, home-cooked meals daily.
Two things he isn’t doing, however, are Botox or the fat jab.
Not because he doesn’t want to, but because he physically cannot.
A few years ago, after battling crippling anxiety and panic attacks, Pete was diagnosed with panic disorder.
Characterised by unexpected panic attacks — sudden episodes of intense fear accompanied by heart palpitations and dizziness — Pete has now developed a fear of medicine.
It means that as well as not taking a paracetamol in three years, he has also had to quit Botox as the thought of a foreign body entering him fills him with terror.
He says with a laugh: “I’m going to throw Claire, my manager and friend of 30 years, under the bus here, but ages ago she said to me ‘Pete, as your friend, you need Botox now.’
“And I used to do it. But, and I have never said this publicly before, I have always suffered with horrific anxiety and have actually been diagnosed with panic disorder.
“Although I largely have it under control, it has manifested itself now with medicine.
‘Kids are my world’
“I have a fear of taking medicine, of putting something in my body that I can’t get out. That includes injections. So I haven’t had Botox in about four years, I can’t have flu jabs, and I will never, ever have filler.
“Even when I get a headache now, I cannot take paracetamol.
“So when it came to Covid and having the vaccine, it was traumatic. I had to have therapy beforehand as I was so terrified.
I describe it to someone as imagine that thing where a spider lays eggs under your skin.
“Obviously, with my wife being a doctor, it is hard — she thinks I just need exposure therapy and to get on with it, basically.”
I have a fear of taking medicine, of putting something in my body that I can’t get out. That includes injections. So I haven’t had Botox in about four years
Peter Andre
Pete, 53, has been married to his stunning doctor wife, Emily, for 11 years.
They have three children — Millie, 12, Theo, nine and Arabella, 18 months — whose faces they do not put on social media.
That’s in stark contrast to his two eldest, Princess and Junior, who grew up on camera as the products of two reality TV-famous parents.
The pair are from his first marriage to Katie Price, who he met when they were in the jungle for the third series of I’m A Celebrity . . . in 2004.
Viewers watched the couple fall in love, and a lavish OK! magazine-sponsored wedding at Highclere Castle in Hampshire in 2005 followed, as did several fly-on-the-wall reality shows.
Their 2009 split was acrimonious. For years they had no contact, speaking only through intermediaries for the sake of their kids.
It came as something of a shock to fans, then, when the duo issued a joint statement in February announcing a detente and pledging to “close the door on the past”.
In pop culture terms, this was the equivalent of President Trump knocking down his Mexican wall.
“A lot of people don’t know this, but many times over the last 16 years, we have been OK,” Pete smiles, chatting from London’s Landmark hotel.
“Only four years ago, she was sitting in our garden and we were all having lunch. And I love that.
“And now we’re fine again and this time I really want it to last. Because, no matter what happens, she’s the mother of my kids. And those kids are my world.
Now we’re fine again and this time I really want it to last. Because, no matter what happens, she’s the mother of my kids
Peter Andre, on Katie Price
“It was only recently when Princess was in the kitchen and she went, ‘Oh, I’ll go in the other room to make this call’.
“I asked why, and thought she was going to be speaking to a boy or something, but she said, ‘I’m going to speak to Mum’. I said, ‘Well, put her on, and I’ll say hello’.
“So she came on and she went, ‘Oh, this is weird isn’t it’ and I said, ‘Actually, it isn’t.’
“And that’s when I saw her and her husband. We had a chat, we laughed, and it wasn’t weird at all.”
So what does he make of the former glamour model’s new chap, Lee Andrews — a man she met and married within weeks?
“My parents were incredibly strict with me,” he says.
“And one day I remember saying to my dad, ‘Have you ever asked what makes me happy?’ Because as parents we tend to tell our kids what they should be doing and not listening to what they actually want.
“So my thing to Kate is, ‘Are you genuinely happy? And if you are, then that’s great’.
“Who am I to tell someone what they should or shouldn’t be doing? Or even giving an opinion about it? I want her to be happy.”
Remarkably, given they have been in the full glare of the media, Katie and Pete’s two children are well-adjusted, sweet and polite kids — and it’s clear the star is hugely proud of all his children.
I have known this very gentlemanly, family-orientated star for almost two decades.
And although we haven’t seen each other in six years prior to this interview, when I WhatsApped him a few months ago requesting a personalised video for a very sick friend-of-a-friend, he agreed immediately.
That is the sort of man he is. A recent clip from influencer Princess’s reality show went viral after the youngster was seen showing her dad a direct message she’d received from a stranger — with Pete recoiling in horror.
It also emerged she’d been receiving unsolicited sexual content since the day she turned 16, with vile, opportunistic men relishing the fact she had “become legal”.
Now the Aussie pop star is calling both for a ban on social media for under-16s, and asking schools to step up and offer greater support to parents.
I saw one guy was asking Princess to take photos of her feet and send them to him or something — it was disgusting
Peter Andre on social media
Pete says: “I just don’t understand at what point men think it’s OK to send photos of their genitalia.
“The guy doing it, what’s he thinking? I guess if you’re flirting and a guy sends you a picture of him topless in the gym, you might go, ‘Oh, OK’.
“But if a woman sent a picture of her, you know, (he means front bottom) . . . most guys are going to go, ‘What the hell?’ I think really it’s just men doing it. It’s gross and stresses me out.
“I saw one guy was asking Princess to take photos of her feet and send them to him or something — it was disgusting.
“Why would you ask that of someone? I know Princess is 18 now and I have to let go of it and cut the umbilical cord, but it’s hard.”
When I insouciantly mention I received my first dick pic over Instagram a couple of weeks ago, Pete is genuinely horrified. What did he actually think you’d do with that?” (Not much, Pete, not much.)
He clarifies he doesn’t get any unsolicited boob photos from women — which is a good job as he is very happily married.
Pete is, though, quick to hit back against accusations of nepobabyism.
He harrumphs: “The reason why the nepobaby thing doesn’t work so much for me is because if you look at someone like Michael Douglas, one of the greatest actors of our time, you don’t go, ‘But he’s only a great actor because his dad was Kirk Douglas’.
“I mean, there’s Charlie Sheen, right? His dad was Martin Sheen. And Angelina Jolie — her dad is Jon Voight. Liza Minnelli, her mum was Judy Garland.
“So it’s just a new thing that’s been coined and isn’t really fair.”
Pete adds: “I know it sounds hypocritical, me calling now for a ban on social media for under-16s. But none of us knew where it was going to go, and how toxic it would become.
“My daughter Millie’s school has banned phones, and thank God — because as parents it’s almost impossible for us to stop what they can access.
“Parents need support and for more schools to step up, as well as the Government, and do this.
Highs and lows
“It’s working in Australia, so why not here?”
Of course, Pete isn’t a complete Luddite and is using Instagram — fully clothed — to promote his new album, Legacy, which is the ostensible reason we are here today.
It is already number one in the pre-order midweeks, and new single All About Us has been B-playlisted on Radio 2 alongside artists including Taylor Swift, Lizzo, Jack Savoretti and Niall Horan.
Pete became a Nineties pin-up largely thanks to those abs featured in the video for his first big hit Mysterious Girl, and he recognises his lasting legacy will probably always be that 1995 earworm.
But he is quick to point out he’s also secured three number one singles and a number one album — and reckons he won’t retire until he lands one more.
My daughter Millie’s school has banned phones, and thank God — because as parents it’s almost impossible for us to stop what they can access
Peter Andre
He landed a World Music Award in 1997 in front of an audience including Celine Dion (who gave him a signed CD, which he lost), Lionel Richie, Ricky Martin and the Bee Gees. He went on to become pals with Robin Gibb.
Over the course of his varied career, Pete has enjoyed the typical highs and lows of fame, plus that celeb rite of passage, an appearance on Strictly in 2015.
He still regularly tours the world and in May will join the cast of Abba musical Mamma Mia! at the O2.
Today, he remains very much a devoted family man. Indeed, he is frequently hailed as “Saint Pete”.
So what is the most dastardly thing Saint Pete has done?
While not quite Theresa May levels of wheat field-trotting, he cites a naked sauna with the Backstreet Boys and taking up smoking under peer pressure from — and the name seems ironic in this context — girl group All Saints.
- Peter Andre’s new album, Legacy, is available to buy now. See slinky.to/legacy.
