'I GET ANGRY WHEN PEOPLE HAVE A GO AT OBESE PEOPLE'

AFTER STARTING HIS CAREER WITH A STRAPPING SIX-PACK THEN LATER PUTTING ON WEIGHT, PETER ANDRE KNEW IT WAS TIME TO TACKLE HIS ATTITUDE TOWARDS FOOD

- LESLEY JONES

If there's any man you'd expect to feel body confident on the beach, it's Peter Andre. But the singer and TV personality, who's still famed for the ripped six-pack we first saw in the video for his mid-90s hit Mysterious Girl, tells OK! that image of a "ripped 22-year-old" means he's had a lot to live up to ever since.

"Talk about building a rod for your own back," he says.

Speaking candidly about his long-held body insecurities, the performer reveals that these days he would never take his shirt off in public and is still dealing with "psychological issues" after a single photo sent him spiralling into self-loathing.

A self-confessed yo-yo dieter, Pete says there was a time in his thirties when he "didn't care about training". As a result, he gained 3st from eating "pizza, Chinese, anything I could get my hands on, all day, every day".

Recalling the photo that triggered his body insecurities, he says, "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 may not be up for baring all on the beach, but having lost the excess weight through balanced eating and training, he's co-written a new book, It's Fine, to inspire others battling with feelings of restriction and unhappiness when dieting.