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.
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
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:
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
