Peter Andre said he suffered a nervous breakdown at the peak of his career in the nineties.
The Mysterious Girl singer, 50, spent six years in psychiatric units from the age of 25 after spiralling into a “blur of nightclubs and groupies and a lot of casual sex”.
The reality star also said his shirtless posing and “arrogance” masked his insecurities and was just to gain validation and acceptance.
The star, who said he still suffers from brain fog and panic attacks, told The Times: “It was an insecurity thing, trying to prove a point because of the years that you weren’t accepted.
“I don’t like who I became when I was just going with girls and not caring. I just went off on a tangent.”
The father-of-four, who returned to his family home in Australia before heading to the US to “hide”, said he is a completely different person these days.
“In the Nineties, guys were thinking, ‘Are you looking at my girl?’ and all that. But now I’m not threatening in any sort of way, shape or form,” he said.
The entertainer had years of success off the back of his hit 1995 pop track Mysterious Girl, which had a resurgence in 2004 when he appeared on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!
He stepped firmly back in the limelight, after years of being off the radar, when he struck up a romance with former Glamour model Katie Price who he married, had two children with and divorced a few years after.
Their life together was documented in a hit reality TV show and both have remained in the spotlight since.
The star rose to fame in 1989, when at age 16 as a contestant on an Australian talent show called New Faces.
After the show, he was offered a record deal and sent to the UK where he recorded his debut single Drive Me Crazy, and his breakthrough hit, Gimme Little Sign.
