He’s a successful pop star with a loving wife and four children.
But Peter Andre, 47, has revealed that school bullies and even TEACHERS called him names as he discussed his experience of racism with his brother Danny.
The Mysterious girl hitmaker admitted: ‘I was beaten quite a few times!’ as he detailed his childhood struggles in Australia.
Awful! Peter Andre, 47, has revealed that school bullies and even TEACHERS called him names as he discussed his experience of racism
The brothers, who have Cypriot heritage, were beaten up and bullied growing up, with Peter opening up about the experience during a chat for The Sun.
He said: ‘We suffered racism bad as kids and called greasy wogs. I was beaten quite a few times from kids at the school.’
‘To this day I don’t wear my hair curly purely because when I look in the mirror I see what those kids used to call me, even now at 47 years old. You’d think I’d be over it.’
The star also recalled being bullied by a teacher, who used racist terminology after Peter explained that he would be in his class the following year.
Horrendous: The star also recalled being bullied by a teacher, who used racist terminology after Peter explained that he would be in his class the following year
Candid: The Mysterious girl hitmaker admitted: ‘I was beaten quite a few times!’ as he detailed his childhood struggles in Australia, during a chat with his brother Danny (pictured)
According to Peter, the teacher responded by saying: ‘Yeah, I’ve never had a greasy wog in my class. Greasy wogs don’t do well in my class. You’re going to sit up the back, right?’
Last September, Peter – – who raises Junior, 15, and Princess, 12, with his ex-spouse Katie Price, and Amelia, six, and Theo, three, with his wife Emily MacDonagh – revealed he contemplated suicide due to years of bullying as a teenager.
The star thought about ‘ending it’ when he first moved to Australia from England with his Greek Cypriot family due to the horrific racist abuse which he was subjected to.
Honest: ‘We suffered racism bad as kids and called greasy wogs. I was beaten quite a few times from kids at the school’ said Peter
The father-of-four made the admissions in a video for The Diana Award’s #Back2School campaign.
He said: ‘Did I ever contemplate ending it? Yeah. In that period of time, yeah. Bullying is a horrible thing.
‘It really is horrible. On every level. Unfortunately it happens. It’s been going on for generations.’
Peter said the attacks were racially motivated and he was made to feel like he didn’t fit in because of his Mediterranean background.
‘When you’re a kid with dark hair, dark eyes, strong English accent, much bigger nose than the kids around you, I was an outcast like you wouldn’t believe.
‘I mean, I couldn’t have stuck out more. The term they used in Australia at the time was “w*g”. “W*g” was used for Greeks, for Italians, people from the Mediterranean.
‘It happened instantly. Instantly. In our neighbourhood, where we moved into, you’d walk down the street and they’d go, “Get outta here, w*g!” That’s what it was like.’
The Mysterious Girl hitmaker was also physically attacked by some of his peers for saying he liked football, which was considered a ‘girl’s sport’.
He was also tied to a fence had stones thrown at his head as they taunted him with chants of ‘greasy w*g’.
Rarely curly: ‘To this day I don’t wear my hair curly purely because when I look in the mirror I see what those kids used to call me, even now at 47 years old. You’d think I’d be over it,’ he said