How Pete Wicks overcame a troubled childhood to impress Strictly fans with his moves – after saving his mum’s life when he was just 12 and battling anger issues following his parents’ divorce

Since he first made his dancefloor debut last month, Strictly Come Dancing star Pete Wicks has earned a whole new army of fans with his unlikely moves.

While he was known to most as a star of The Only Way Is Essex, viewers have shared they’re starting to see him in a different light on the BBC show, saying they’ve ‘warmed to him a lot more than they expected to.’

But before rising to fame a decade ago, Pete overcame his fair share of struggles during his childhood, including estrangement from his father when his parents divorced and his anger issues that followed.

In his recent memoir, Pete also shared the moment he saved his mum’s life when he was 12, after she tried to commit suicide while struggling with her mental health.

He also reflected on his close bond with his grandmother, who passed away in 2022, and how he plans to pay tribute to her with a Strictly performance in the coming weeks. 

Paired with professional Jowita Przystal , Pete has already won over viewers just three weeks into the new series 

Paired with professional Jowita Przystal, Pete has already won over viewers just three weeks into the new series, and despite insisting he has little dance experience, has already been praised by the judges for his progress. 

This weekend he will take to the dancefloor once again with a Quickstep to The Jam’s hit A Town Called Malice, after sending viewers wild with his George Of The Jungle-themed Samba last week.

MailOnline takes a look at how Pete has overcome childhood trauma and struggles to become a Strictly fan favourite:

Estranged from his dad

Pete has shared that until the age of 11 he had a relatively happy childhood, but things changed when his parents divorced, and his relationship with his father broke down

Pete has shared that until the age of 11 he had a relatively happy childhood, growing up in Essex with his mum, dad and sister, as well as a close bond with his grandmother Doreen.

However, things changed when his parents divorced, and his relationship with his father broke down.

He said that while at first he would see him on occasions, he found their meetings ‘forced and awkward.’

Writing in his book Never Enough: My Words Unfiltered, Pete shared that while his relationship with his father briefly returned to normal during a scuba-diving holiday, they eventually lost touch when he relocated to the Middle East. 

He wrote: ‘Looking back, I don’t blame him for f*****g off. I think he was struggling with everything that happened a lot more than he let on. But, at the time, I just thought: clearly I’m not enough for him to want to stay.’

Speaking to Jamie Laing on his Private Parts podcast earlier this year, Pete added: ‘I have nothing to do with him, don’t speak to him at all.

‘My dad’s not a bad person – he’s a good guy. We just don’t have a relationship and that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. We don’t have a relationship and that’s that. Not much I can do about it.

‘It hasn’t stopped me from wanting to be around people who do bring something to your life.’

Speaking also spoke about his relationship with his father on Celebs Go Dating, saying: ‘Him leaving didn’t just affect me. My mum was not in a great way for a good few years. And I didn’t really get a chance to process what I needed to process because I had to make sure she was alright.’

When asked about the impact it had on him, he replied: ‘It made me become the man I am and part of what I am, which I’m grateful for. But it’s not his fault. A lot of that is probably my fault as well.’

Anger issues 

In recent weeks Pete has shared how following his parents’ divorce, he ‘bottled up his emotions’ until they began to spill out in outbursts of anger 

In recent weeks Pete has shared how following his parents’ divorce, he ‘bottled up his emotions’ until they began to spill out in outbursts of anger.

He shared that he would attempt to ‘rile people up,’ and pick a fight with others, and was even branded an ‘animal’ by one parent after clashing with another player during a rugby match.

Writing in his memoir, he detailed how it was an incident at a family funeral that made him realise his behaviour wasn’t healthy.

He wrote that he ended up ‘squaring up’ to a relative who he ‘didn’t get on with,’ adding: ‘I had generally always been really calm around my nan – she made me feel calm – and it was the first time she had seen me like that, and she wasn’t able to help.

‘It really upset her… I know she was really worried about me. That’s when I thought: ”S**t. This is actually not okay.”

Pete has since shared that his anger has ‘dissipated’ in recent years, and he mainly puts it down to the fact that he’s ‘grown up’ and ‘started to understand himself better.’

Saving his Mum’s life

Pete has detailed the moment he saved his mum Tracy’s life when he was just 12-years-old after he found her in the kitchen after an attempted suicide  

Pete has detailed the moment he saved his mum Tracy’s life when he was just 12-years-old after he found her in the kitchen after an attempted suicide.  

Referring to his mum as ‘the strongest woman I know, she’s my hero,’ Pete explained he came down into the kitchen to find Tracy sitting at the table covered with blood while holding a knife in one hand.

Pete recalled how he was terrified and immediately called his nan Doreen for help before also dialling 999.

As he waited for the ambulance, the star tried to stem the flow of blood and keep his mum alive as he recalled: ‘I just went into crisis mode’.

He wrote: ‘I saw her sitting at the table, which had been covered in blood. I saw the blood dripping first. She was holding a knife in her other hand.

‘Immediately, I ran over to her to take the knife from her hand. Before that, she had seemed almost possessed – it was like my mum had gone and someone (or something) else had taken over her body.’

‘But when I came over to her, it’s like she woke up. She looked up at me with eyes full of tears. ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,’ she kept repeating.

Referring to his mum as ‘the strongest woman I know,’ Pete explained he came down into the kitchen to find Tracy sitting at the table covered with blood while holding a knife in one hand

‘I told her it was okay as I panicked trying to work out what to do. I called Nan. I could barely get the words out to describe what had happened. I think I basically just said, ‘Mum… knife… blood.’

Pete’s nan, who passed away in June 2022, instructed him to hang up and call an ambulance, as he continued in the book: ‘I took her instructions, calling the ambulance, and then I got to work trying to look after Mum, who by that point was sitting on the floor and bleeding very badly.

‘I grabbed towels to try to stop the bleeding. I poured the wine down the sink. It’s hard to pinpoint how I felt in that moment, because I think it was just pure shock. I didn’t cry – I just went into crisis mode.’

Pete wrote his new book to destigmatise talking openly about mental health and has recalled how the aftermath of the trauma had a huge effect on his life.

He explained he became incredibly protective of Tracy, who raised him as a single mum after she split from Pete’s dad when Pete was 11.

He wrote: ‘I didn’t say it, but I believed it was my fault. I had been with Mum before it happened. I had agreed to go upstairs. I had stayed upstairs even though I could hear her wailing. If it was anyone’s fault, it was mine.

‘Looking back, I know that my responsibility was probably overwhelming in that moment. I was the child, and I needed to be looked after.

‘Instead, I had to look after my parent and suppress all the fear, panic, loneliness and self-blame that was beginning to grow inside me.’

Fortunately Tracy made a fast recovery, and apologised to her son, describing it as a ‘moment of madness’ that would never happen again.

Close bond with his Nan 

In 2022, Pete was then left devastated by the death of his beloved grandmother Doreen, who he described as his ‘best friend’ 

To help him cope, Pete said earlier this year he has ‘a very good circle of strong women’ around him who help him process his feelings (pictured with his grandmother) 

In 2022, Pete was then left devastated by the death of his beloved grandmother Doreen, who he described as his ‘best friend.’

The star described her as his ‘biggest support’ during his turbulent teenage years, and even has a tattoo in her honour.

Writing his memoir, Pete said: ‘The day she died, I had been in London seeing friends. Mum called me and told me I needed to get to the hospital quickly.

‘Mum and I sat either side of her, holding each hand. I can remember the last words she said to me as if it were yesterday: ”You’re my soulmate”.’ 

To help him cope, Pete said earlier this year he has ‘a very good circle of strong women’ around him who help him process his feelings.

He said on Lorraine last month: ‘She was amazing Doreen, just an angel on earth. She had a major impact on my life and loosing her is the toughest thing I’ve ever been through.

‘She was more than a grandma she was my best friend. You can’t really understand your own emotions and feelings. Mine came out as anger because I couldn’t process what I was feeling.

‘I surround myself with a very good circle of strong women, it’s really important.

‘Women are so much more important at understanding and getting through difficult situations.

‘The boys go to the pub and it’s like ‘you alright, how are you’ and that’s it. It does make a massive difference, it’s not just about talking it’s having someone just to listen.’

Pete has since shared that he’s hoping to play tribute to Doreen with a Strictly performance to one of her favourite sings, admitting on the High Performance Podcast she would have ‘loved’ to watch him on the show. 

Speaking about what she would have thought about her taking part on the show, he said: ‘She would have loved it. I don’t think she ever imagined that I’d be doing ballroom dancing on a Saturday night.

‘Hopefully there’s one song that we might be doing which is very, very special to me at some point, if I’m in long enough, which is going to be a bit of a tribute to her.

‘She had the best sense of humour, so she’d have found it hilarious watching me strut around like a t*t.’ 

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday at 6:20pm on BBC One and iPlayer.