Peter Andre says he suffered racist abuse as he grew up with people – including teachers – rounding on him over his Greek heritage.
The 48-year-old father-of-four was born in London in 1973 and moved with his family to Sydney, Australia, when he was six-years-old.
He is the son of father Savvas and mother Thea who are both from Cyprus, are Jehovah's Witnesses, and had a high regard for Greek traditions which they passed down to their six children – of which Peter is the youngest.
But growing up in Australia, Peter found he was the victim of cruel school kids, and even ended up on the receiving end of xenophobic comments from teachers, while he was educated Down Under.
Opening up about his childhood to The Guardian, Peter said: “Throughout my life I’ve been accepted and rejected for my appearance.
“As a kid, I felt isolated because I was Greek and a “greasy wog”, as the kids and teachers used to call me. I took a lot of beatings for looking different; some were with fists and some were with stones.”
The physical violence included being threatened with a weapon, with Peter sating: “The knife that was pulled on me never went all the way in, but it certainly scared me enough to know that things could be over very quickly.”
Peter has opened up about the scarring impact of the racist abuse he experienced in the past before.
Back in 2020, the star appeared on an episode of Lorraine where he opened up about his past struggles.
He said: “What happened was, moving to Australia… [it’s] is now so multi-cultural, and so beautiful. But when I first moved to the Gold Coast, we were the only ethnic family on the coast.
“I don’t remember another ethnic family, initially. We are talking 35 years ago and I had the dark hair, the big nose and the English accent. I stood out.”
Peter added that he was taunted verbally before things turned physically violent.
He said: “We were picked on a lot. Initially, it was racism, which is a form of bullying. And it wasn’t just calling names – we got beaten pretty bad.”
Peter said there was a positive outcome eventually as his past taunters have since tracked him down to apologise for their behaviour.
He explained: “Years later, a lot of those people have apologised and they’re not like that now at all.
“But when you are bullied, even if you get through it like I did, certain things scar you for life. Bullying is a horrible thing and so many kids are going through it.
“It’s scarred me to the point that even now, at 47, my hair is naturally curly but I won’t have it curly. I always straighten it.”
Ending on a sombre note, the Mysterious Girl singer added: “That’s the long-term effect of bullying and it’s really tough.”
