Strictly Come Dancing's Pete Wicks recalls shock of saving his mum's life aged 12

Pete Wicks
-Credit: (Image: Brett D. Cove / SplashNews.com)


Strictly Come Dancing's Pete Wicks has opened up about how he saved his mum's life aged just 12. The former Towie star revealed the horrific scene he was confronted with when he found mum Tracy in their kitchen after she attempted suicide.

Pete has spoken about the ordeal in his new memoir. He remembers how, terrified, he phoned his nan Doreen for help and then called an ambulance before fighting to keep his mum alive, the Mirror reports.

Reliving the night, the star, 36, said: “Before that, she had seemed almost possessed – it was like my mum had gone and someone (or something) else had taken over her body.

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“But when I came over to her, it’s like she woke up. She looked up at me with eyes full of tears. ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,’ she kept repeating. I told her it was okay as I panicked trying to work out what to do. I called nan. I could barely get the words out to describe what had happened."

In his book, Never Enough, Pete says the aftermath of the trauma had a huge effect on his life, as he became protective of Tracy. Pete said his mum is the 'strongest woman I know and my hero’.

She raised him as a single mum with Doreen in Harlow, Essex, after she split from Pete’s dad when he was 11. But also shared how he blamed himself.

He says: “I didn’t say it, but I believed it was my fault. I had been with Mum before it happened. I had agreed to go upstairs. I had stayed upstairs even though I could hear her wailing.

"If it was anyone’s fault, it was mine. Looking back, I know that my responsibility was probably overwhelming in that moment. I was the child, and I needed to be looked after. Instead, I had to look after my parent and suppress all the fear, panic, loneliness and self-blame that was beginning to grow inside me.”

Luckily, Tracy made a fast recovery and was quickly out of hospital. She apologised to her son and said it was a “moment of madness” that would never happen again.

Pete bottled up his feelings. He says: “I think I was worried that, if we communicated in any more detail, all the feelings I was trying to suppress would spill out of me. One of those feelings was anger. I was angry at her for doing it. She kept telling me she loved me and she was sorry, but I thought: how could you love me, if you would’ve f**king left me? I thought I wasn’t enough for her to stay.”

In more recent years, the pair have been able to talk about the past. Pete says: “It’s only in the last few years that I’ve processed a lot of what has happened and I’ve had some really open conversations with her. I have come to understand that she never wanted to leave me – she wanted to leave herself. It wasn’t because she didn’t love me enough.

"It’s because the struggle and the pain was so real that she wasn’t able to think outside of that. I don’t blame my mum for any of it. I just wish I could take all that pain away.”

  • Pete’s book, Never Enough, is out now