Pete Wicks has detailed the horrific backlash he received after his explosive split from Megan McKenna.
The former TOWIE star, 37, revealed he was sent death threats on a daily basis and had “people spit on him in the street”. He cheated on Megan, 32, in 2016 with their turbulent relationship becoming one of the biggest storylines on the reality show. Pete, who now has an amicable friendship with his ex, has opened up on the extreme hate that came his way.
Megan has also previously shared how The Only Way Is Essex was “one of the most miserable times of her life”. Opening up on the experience, Pete said: “I have never experienced… it’s really hard when I looked back on it to think about how bad it was because at the time I was going through a break up with Megan that everyone knew the ins and outs of it.
“I was getting death threats daily, I had people spit at me in the streets, I had people send me videos of dolls they made hanging from trees that they were burning. I had a lot at the time, I felt like I was a national hate figure, like public enemy number one. But all I was bothered about at the time was Megan and the fact that I lost Megan and had upset her. I felt so so guilty, so so guilty.”
He added to Paul C Brunson on his We Need To Talk podcast: “But with that on top I was just all over the shop but it is what is it. The annoying thing is people say ‘If you’re in the public eye then you put yourself in for these sort of stuff’. And completely, you put yourself in a position where you allow people to make judgement and allow people to have opinions.
“You know I was even getting death threats through Strictly for still being in the competition because there were better dancers leaving and it does get to the point where I don’t think anyone deserves death threats, it does get a bit f****** silly. Don’t get me wrong, I was in the wrong and always held my hands up about that. But it was something between Megan and I.
“I never meant to hurt her and obviously I did. But the attention that that got and what that bought with it, I was just dumbfounded, I didn’t know what to do. It’s made me very wary, It’s made me wary of people and has made me more private. That’s when I realise from that point there is two [of] me. The private me and very public me.”
Pete and Megan started dating in 2016, a year after he joined TOWIE. By the time the pair reunited on Celebs Go Dating they agreed to remain friends and looking back at their romance, Pete admitted to being at fault. “About three or four months into us being together I made a few mistakes,” he said. “I was messaging other women. When I start to get feelings for someone I feel vulnerable.”
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