Mark Wright says he played a character on TOWIE and that he faked drama with fiancée Lauren Goodger to make the show more successful.
The 35-year-old was on the show for three series from its beginnings in 2010 and was in a relationship with co-star Lauren, even getting engaged during the first series.
But Mark, who is now married to former Coronation Street star Michelle Keegan, says he created drama and took on his "playboy" character to make the show a success.
And he's also revealed that he brought in his Nanny Pat and pal James 'Arg' Argent to strategically counteract public opinion.
Speaking on the No Boundaries Podcast with Aaron Mclean, he said: "I played a character on the show that was... it's real life but also you dramatise your real life moments and I knew what this show needed to be popular - it needed drama.
"The way you create drama is people being upset and arguing.
"When I was there and I had a couple of girlfriends on the show, I had to create drama, so I was playing up to this playboy character, I was only young, I was a bit of a cheeky chappy, but I was playing up to it more and of course people don't like that because you're upsetting people and I was aware of that."
Revealing his strategy to control how the public perceived him, he went on: "That's why I said to them I want Nanny Pat to be on the show, because at least it would humanise me - it was a very clever move looking back.
"And I wanted Arg to be my mate, I didn't want my other kind of cheeky chap club promoter mates to be on it, I wanted him to humanise me and show I had a normal, nice side as well and that's how I managed the balance.
"So I had the people going 'I can't believe he's just done that' to the people going 'How cute is Mark with his nan?'
"And I had to balance that, but yeah it was hard to know that people were feeling that way about me when I weren't that guy, and that's why I left so quick."
Mark left the show after only around 10 months of filming and told his manager he wanted to land a spot on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! in a bid to change public opinion.
* Watch the full interview with Mark here
