Pete Wicks talks to Associate Editor Tom Bryant about dating Olivia Attwood, his love of dogs, his astonishing Keir Starmer interview, and life in the spotlight
Pete Wicks and Olivia Attwood have only been dating a few months but people are already getting ahead of themselves.
“We’re getting questions like ‘when are you getting married?’ ” he laughs. “You wouldn’t normally ask that to anyone that’s a new couple but Liv and I have been in the game long enough to just kind of brush it off.
“We’re happy, we’re good. That’s kind of all that matters.”
Pete knows better than most how the celebrity circus works. He first found fame on The Only Way Is Essex in 2015, allowing cameras to follow the ups and downs of his relationships. But more than a decade later, his career has taken a rather different direction.
We’re speaking the morning after his podcast Pete Wicks‘ Man Made scooped two wins at the British Podcast Awards including best interview podcast. There was no partying well into the night, however. “I’m kind of off drinking at the minute, so I was very well behaved and went home to the dog,” he smiles.
While his career is going from strength to strength, there’s, of course, plenty happening in his personal life too.
Pete, 37, and Olivia, 35, found love following Olivia’s split from footballer Bradley Dack, 32, in January after more than a decade together.
Speculation about Pete and Olivia intensified when they were photographed kissing in March, before finally making their relationship Instagram official during a holiday in Ibiza in July.
He says: “It’s been a couple of months but according to some we’ve launched more times than NASA. But we’re together, and it’s great. It’s lovely.
“Obviously, we’re both in the same industry, so we both kind of understand things work-wise… and I don’t know anyone that works as hard as Liv. You know, I work quite hard, but nothing like Liv.
“And it’s great to have these shared experiences with someone who kind of understands, because it’s a weird world we live in.”
He says he understands the scrutiny but even a quiet dinner together can become a talking point.
He admits: “Everyone has relationships but any time we go to dinner, it becomes this big thing. We’re just having a date night like normal people. But being in the public eye, we can’t complain because we put ourselves in that position, but in the same respect, I think sometimes people forget that we’re just normal people.”
Away from Man Made, his career has seen him compete on Strictly Come Dancing, present documentaries and host the hugely successful Staying Relevant podcast with his close friend Sam Thompson, 34.
The pair were also unveiled this week as the official red-carpet hosts at the Mirror’s Pride of Britain Awards.
Yet for all his success, Pete admits there are still people who struggle to see beyond his TOWIE past.
“You will always still have that kind of stigma of people going, ‘Oh, he’s that w***** that was on TOWIE,’” he admits.
“It was 10 years ago and the person I am now is very different to the person I was then, in the same way the person I am now is very different to the person I’ll be in 10 years.
One of the projects he’s particularly proud of is Pete Wicks: For Dogs‘ Sake, which has just returned for its fourth series.
It’s a programme he spent years trying to get off the ground, without much encouragement from broadcasters at first.
But the show – which follows the rehabilitation of abandoned and neglected animals at Dogs Trust – has sin cegone onto win a slew of awards including Best Popular Factual Programme at the Broadcast Digital Awards.
One case in the latest series proved particularly difficult. In January, more than 250 poodle-crosses were rescued from a house in a case that made headlines around the country.
An extraordinary RSPCA photograph showed dozens of filthy, matted dogs crammed together in a room, staring towards the camera. Pete’s programme followed four of the dogs being cared for at Dogs Trust’s Canterbury centre.
“Over the years, not just on the show, but outside of it, I’ve seen a lot of neglect and abuse cases….but these four were the most shut-down dogs I’ve ever seen,” he says.
“It’s likely that they were born within that house and probably never left that house.”
The animals were so frightened that the production crew couldn’t film them in the usual way. Instead, cameras were installed in a room where Pete and a behaviourist could work quietly with the dogs.
“For the first few times, they just would not come out of the corners, would not come near me. They wouldn’t eat. It was heartbreaking.”
Pete spent hours sitting with the animals off camera, allowing them to become accustomed to his presence. “They were some of the worst that I’ve seen in 20 years, in terms of their emotional or mental state.”
He won’t reveal whether they were successfully rehomed, but promises viewers will see a considerable change.
“I would do this show till I die if they let me,” he says. “It’s time consuming and it is hard work, but it’s also the most joyous thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
The awards he was celebrating the night before our chat came after his Man Made podcast secured an extraordinary interview with Sir Keir Starmer at Downing Street last November.
During their conversation the former Prime Minister choked up discussing the death of his brother Nick, who had learning difficulties and died from cancer on Boxing Day 2024.
When I tell Pete I was rather envious of how much he managed to get out of the Prime Minister, he laughs.
“I’m surprised they let me in 10 Downing Street, to be honest with you. That was the biggest surprise for me,” he says.
“Whatever your kind of political agenda is, behind that is still a man. It’s a man that has emotions and thoughts and feelings, the same as everyone else.”
Next up is a new ITV series with Sam examining men’s health and wellbeing trends, including biohacking and looksmaxxing, in which the pair undergo various tests and experiment with different approaches to their health.
“Sam, you know, goes to the gym and looks after himself, I do not. I probably abused my body quite heavily the last 20 years, so it’s interesting when you kind of look at that sort of stuff.”
For all the awards and new commissions, Pete admits he is still learning as he goes, particularly when it comes to interviewing people about their lives.
“I learn every week and love hearing stories from the guests and it’s genuinely a passion project for me.”
And with no shortage of projects on the go, it sounds as though he’s found his place.“I’m really fortunate,” he says. “There’s not many people, I think, that can say that they go to work and genuinely love what they do.”
Pete Wicks : For Dogs’ Sake, Monday, 9pm, U&W
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
