Pete Wicks has spoken openly about his previous heavy alcohol intake, admitting he was a “pretty heavy drinker” for over 15 years prior to taking part on the hit BBC show Strictly Come Dancing.
Pete Wicks has disclosed that his dietary habits have resulted in a health issue.
The former Strictly Come Dancing contestant has previously spoken about his alcohol intake. He admitted he was a “pretty heavy drinker” for over 15 years prior to taking part on the hit BBC show.
The 36-year-old says he would find himself “drinking for the sake of drinking” and would regularly consume a bottle of wine a night, every night. But after discovering it was difficult to learn his dance routines with a “slightly fuzzy head”, Pete decided to cut back.
He has since ceased “day drinking” and while he occasionally enjoys “a few drinks with the boys”, it’s not a daily occurrence. During an episode of his Staying Relevant podcast with close friend Sam Thompson, Pete revealed that his excessive drinking had caused him to develop a “tremor”.
This revelation came when former England rugby player Joe Marler was asked what profession he thought ex-The Only Way is Essex star Pete would pursue outside of showbiz, reports Bristol Live. Joe suggested: “Pete, you’re a practical guy, I see you as a cardiac surgeon.”
Sam humorously proposed that Pete could be a roofer, to which Joe retorted: “Roofer? No, no, you’ve got to be a bit more butch, your hands aren’t rougher.”
It was at this point that Pete disclosed his high alcohol consumption had led to a problem with his hands. He explained: “That probably would have been good a few years ago but due to the alcohol, the tremor is an issue with that precise stuff.”
Pete opened up about his relationship with alcohol during an appearance on the Loose Women spin-off, Loose Men. He shared: “I grew up with family that had alcohol dependencies and I think I would never have considered myself to be someone who had a problem with drinking.
“But, Strictly really changed my drinking habits. Pre [Strictly] I was a pretty heavy drinker for 15 years, to the point where I’d have a bottle of wine a night, every night, and that’s just cooking and chilling out. It was my way of kind of chilling out, until I did Strictly and kind of stopped drinking and realised that actually, all that was doing was kind of numbing parts of my reality.”
He continued: “It became a habit to the point where I was functioning by just carrying on doing that and it didn’t really bother me. I didn’t get hangovers and I didn’t really get come downs or anything like that. I was just drinking for the sake of drinking but also, it gave me kind of a reason to numb how I was feeling a lot of the time.”
