HE is the Strictly heart-throb with a list of lovers as long as his arm, and now lothario Pete Wicks is dating his pro dance partner.
But the former Towie star’s romance with Jowita Przystal may be short-lived — because of his battles with “weird stuff in my head” when it comes to love.
Pete, 36, says mental struggles — dating back to his mum’s suicide bid when he was a child — have made it difficult for him to commit and could dash his dreams of one day marrying and having children.
“It’s a case of leaving before someone leaves you.
“I never thought I wanted to get married or have kids — but over the past few years, I would love to get married, I would love to have kids.
“What’s the point of doing amazing things — and I’m so blessed and so fortunate to do some of the amazing st that I do — if you haven’t got someone to share that with?
“I never really saw that before but now I certainly do.
“But I’m not in a position to be able to do that yet because there is still so much weird stuff in my head that that would be so unfair for me to be able to go and do that. It may be to a point that I may never get married, I may never have kids.”
Pete has recently opened up about his traumatic childhood being behind his commitment issues.
When he was 12, he found his mum Tracy during a suicide attempt, which he blamed on himself, and it has left him feeling “not enough”.
He discovered her in a pool of blood at the kitchen table in their home, with a knife in her hand.
After calling for an ambulance, Pete got some towels to help stop Tracy’s bleeding — and his actions saved her life.
He said: “My mum tried to take her own life. I still hold a lot of blame for that.
“My mum is my absolute hero and the journey that she’s been on from then to now is nothing short of incredible.
“But at that low point, I wasn’t enough for her to not want to do that.”
He was also very close to his nan Doreen, who helped raise him in Harlow, Essex after his parents separated.
And it is her death in 2022 that has made Pete start to think about his womanising ways.
He says: “I lost my nan, and that’s what kind of made me think about looking back at things and reflecting on things to work out why I’m the way I am now.”
Before this year’s Strictly Come Dancing launched on BBC One, The Sun published exclusive photos of Pete kissing Love Islander Maura Higgins, 33.
But the pair later insisted they are just good friends.
Pete once had a secret two-year romance with Towie co-star Chloe Sims, 42 but she ditched him in 2020 after he told her he did not want a relationship.
He has also previously been hit by cheating claims — including during his year-and-a-half relationship with another Towie co-star, Megan McKenna, 32, in 2016.
He was caught sexting ex Jacqui Ryland while on holiday with Megan, and Jacqui later branded him a “complete dog”.
Pete told Jake Humphrey on the High Performance Podcast: “When I am down, sad or whatever else, I distance myself from everyone I love because I don’t want to put the burden and the pressure on them.”
Pete and Polish pro Jowita, 30, set tongues wagging after they kissed during their passionate foxtrot dance last week. And over the weekend, it was reported that Pete has “fallen head over heels for Jowita” and “thinks she is amazing in every way”.
They were pictured cosying up to each other at a backstage drinks party after scoring 26 out of 40 for their George Of The Jungle samba, further fuelling speculation of a romance.
He had earlier been seen puffing a cigarette while in costume outside the studios in Elstree, Herts, and reckons smoking helps control his anger.
He said: “I’m not a dancer. I’ve got no rhythm. But I love learning new things. It gets to a point where, if I’m not getting something, I can feel myself getting really angry at myself. So at that point I’m like, ‘OK, I need to just pop outside and have a cigarette’, and I just go, ‘What are you doing? Have a word with yourself’.
“This is something completely new for me, Strictly. I never in a million years thought I’d be doing that.
I think more commonly men struggle with processing their own emotions and how they’re feeling
Pete on anger problems
“It wasn’t my dream, but I’m here, and I’m loving it. “If I get four ones from the judges, but I’ve done the best that I can, I couldn’t give a monkey’s.”
Opening about on his anger problems, Pete admits he used to act like a “thug” when playing football, calling everyone “c*s” and punching holes in the walls at home.
He said: “That’s probably been one of the overriding feelings I’ve had for most of my life.
“I think more commonly men struggle with processing their own emotions and how they’re feeling. So a lot of the time it can be anxiety or whatever else, and it comes out as anger.
He added: “I think it’s that tension of not understanding, and being a release centre.
“For me, that was punching things or going out of my way to probably pick fights.”
In his new book, Never Enough: My Words Unfiltered, released last month, Pete speaks with searing honesty about his childhood and mum’s suicide attempt.
Tracy made a quick recovery in hospital and apologised to Pete for what she said was a “moment of madness”, and promised it would never happen again.
But he said: “Maybe if I’d have been better or been enough at the time, then she wouldn’t have felt the need to be low enough to even consider that.”
Speaking more on the High Performance Podcast about where his troubles stem from, Pete said: “My mum and dad divorced and that’s a fairly normal thing to happen to people.
“My dad, pretty much from the divorce, that was it . . . he kind of left and I didn’t see him very often.
“I really looked up to my dad.
She would have loved it. I don’t think she ever imagined that I’d be doing ballroom dancing on a Saturday night
Pete on his nan Doreen
“My mum’s mental health was bad at the time, really bad.
“My mum wasn’t really present properly, which probably made me feel like she didn’t want me.
“I see so many people I think are such good people, who have had far worse lives than me and have managed to navigate their way through that better than I ever did. And then it makes me think, ‘You’re not good enough, you should have done better’.”
He also reveals he is planning to do a tribute to Doreen on Strictly, saying she would have enjoyed seeing him on the dancefloor.
He added: “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 tit.”
Since finding fame on Towie, Pete has appeared on various other reality shows including Celebs Go Dating where he met I’m A Celeb winner Sam Thompson, 32, in 2018 and the pair quickly formed a well-known bromance.
He was seen competing on Channel 4 show Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins for a second time this week, having been forced to quit in 2022 after breaking a rib when he jumped out of a helicopter.
Viewers saw him quit again on Monday night, this time because he could not face the trauma of having an emotional letter he penned to his mum read out on the show.
