Peter Andre says 'it all came crashing down' after hiding health battle from family

Peter Andre has opened up about a heartbreaking health battle that he hid from his family because it was a "taboo" subject at the time.

In a recent episode of the Exhibit A podcast with Abbey Clancy, the 51-year-old explained how he decided to take a three-month break from his career when he was about 26 or 27 while he was touring.

However when the 'Mysterious Girl' singer returned to his family home, something alarming happened, with Peter left"curling up in a corner". But despite it happening so many years ago, he's "still trying to figure out what it was".

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Peter said: “Something wasn’t right. My…I was getting this thing which I now know is brain fog, and I was freaking out, just feeling really tense and anxious, couldn’t understand.

“And then one night, it just happened. I just, from nowhere, I just broke down into this, literally felt like…imagine a Lego block, the most complicated Lego block, just smashed all over the floor.

"I remember curling up in a corner. I was shaking; I was crying. I mean; this had never happened to me before. I didn't know what it was and I still, to this day...I'm still trying to figure out what it was."

He continued: "I think it would have been all the stuff that had happened. So maybe the bullying as a kid but then, when I got older, there was a couple of incidences (sic) in nightclubs in Sydney where I'd had knives pulled on me and I think maybe it just all...it just all came crashing down."

Peter explained that he put a "bravado" on that he was "cool" but he wasn't inside, adding that you "couldn't talk about it" at the time, so he decided to visit a doctor.

He later opted to travel to the US, where he wasn't known as well, to visit a doctor in New York. Peter said he didn't tell his parents about his concerns as they were "strict" Jehovah's Witnesses and it was a "taboo" subject.

Peter told them that he had to travel overseas to record a new album, but once he arrived, he instead asked people to recommend a psychiatrist. Once he found somebody suitable, though, they weren't able to help him.

He then checked himself into a psychiatric ward for two weeks because he "didn't know what was wrong", but the singer described the experience as a "rude awakening".

He was told that the ward wasn't suitable for him as he was having a "breakdown" and required a therapist. After finally getting one, he said he started taking medication and was eventually brought "back down".

The 'Flava' singer believes that him being a "happy person" contributed to his improvement and he eventually became who he was before he "started all this".