Peter Andre opens up about his struggle with social anxiety: 'That's what I've had all these years'

Peter Andre joined Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on This Morning to discuss his secret battle with social anxiety, revealing that he has suffered from the disorder for years and has used medication and had therapy to help. Speaking about realising he had social anxiety, he explained: "Ayda [Field] was on [Loose Women], and she was talking about how Robbie suffers from social anxiety. My ears pricked up and I thought, 'Alright what's going on here?' And she started explaining that when certain events are coming up… He'll cancel it last minute, or something will happen and he'll freak out and go, 'I can't do it'. I went, 'That's what the label is! That's what I've had all those years - it was social anxiety'. I would literally last minute ring up Claire my manager and say, 'I can't go.' She'd be like, 'What's wrong?' He added: "I would say anything to get out of it. It was because it was because of a social anxiety."

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Peter opened up about his anxiety on This Morning

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Asked by Holly how his childhood in Australia might have triggered the disorder, he replied: "It was a very rough time… and being Greek and having an English accent and going to a place in Australia where there were no ethnics - there was no Italians, no Greeks and here I was, an outcast." He also spoke about being threatened by a knife in Sydney, and how it affected him. "I had a knife held at me in Sydney which really scared me. That's what started the fear of going to nightclubs," he said. "I guess I'm here today to say actually people say it's not curable. They say that you learn to live with it but that's not true. It's curable!"  

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Peter revealed he has been suffering from social anxiety for years

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He then revealed that he particularly struggled with social anxiety following the tragic death of his brother Andrew in 2012. He said: "Once you've been through this you're more susceptible to falling into the trap. The last time it happened was when I lost my brother and it hit me with a vengeance. I was off medication I thought I don't need this in my life then bang I lose my brother and I fall into a deeper hole… You have to talk through it if you can."