Peter Andre "suffered a lot of racism" when he was a child.
Peter Andre suffered from racist abuse as a child
The 49-year-old pop star is of Greek descent and was born in London but moved to Australia with his family when he was six and admitted that these days he still feels the need to straighten his naturally curly hair after his unique look left him at the hands of "racist" bullies.
He said: "In the early years in Australia, I suffered a lot of racism. It was a rough time. Not only were we the only Greeks on the Gold Coast, but I had an English accent, curly hair, and a big nose – and we really stood out. I still straighten my hair because the curly hair reminds me of me being that little kid and those kids calling me what they did at school."
The 'Mysterious Girl' hitmaker - who is married to doctor Emily Andre and has Amelia, eight, and five-year-old Theo with her as well as Junior, 17, and Princess, 15, with ex-wife Katie Price - went on to explain that he would never have a full head of curls for an event because it reminds him of his youth and has had therapy to deal with the traumatic experience.
He told The Mirror: "I wouldn’t just turn up to an event with full curly hair. I just can’t bring myself to do it, even now, and I’ve had therapy. I still see what those kids called me when I look in the mirror. "
Earlier this year, the 'Grease' star revealed that he had a "knife pulled on [his] throat in a club" in his early teens and explained that he still refuses to enter a nightclub because it reminds him of the ordeal.
He said: "I still wouldn’t be seen dead in a nightclub because I associate it with trauma. These guys were serious. I kept thinking, ‘What have I done wrong?’ And that’s when I started to internalise the fear. I just bottled it up and thought, ‘I’ll be fine’. Because other people can’t see it, they think you’re fine, and you suffer in silence. Millions of people suffer like this, there are little trigger points that make them fearful."
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