Joe Wicks was reduced to tears when opening up about his troubled childhood for a new documentary.
Joe Wicks
The TV chef and fitness expert - who became well-loved as the 'Nation's PE teacher' during the COVID-19 lockdown - endured a childhood which saw his father Gary addicted to heroin and his mother Raquela suffering from anorexia and bulimia.
Joe, 36, admits reliving some of the more harrowing moments of his upbringing for BBC show 'Joe Wicks: Mental Health, My Family & Me' took its toll emotionally on him.
He said: "It's a tough subject to talk about. I was interviewing my mum and she said, 'When your little brother George was two, I went into rehab to deal with things.' And my dad was probably still using at the time, so it must have been hard for her to leave us. That buckled me. And then chatting to my dad, he got emotional.
"Realising what I went through - I had actually blocked a lot of it out ... I was really emotional in every scene.
'Joe Wicks: Mental Health, My Family & Me' is due to hit screens next month and despite the trials and tribulations of his early life, Joe believes the trauma he lived through has made him a stronger person and a better husband to his wife Rosie and better father to his children, daughter Indie and son Marley.
During an interview on Talk Radio, he said: "Because I've gone through that, I'm a good husband and father. I'm really stable and loyal to my wife. I know how much it hurt when [my dad] couldn't be there for me because he was in rehab and stuff."
Joe also spoke of how it shocked him to learn that an old schoolfriend had been physically abused at the hands of his own father.
He said: "He was just this happy little boy. And then when he told me on camera 'My dad used to be really violent and beat me up', I just burst into tears. I wasn't ready for that."
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