Former TOWIE star Pete Wicks has opened up about a question he’s asked ‘all the time,’ and it’s not one you’d necessarily expect people to ask him after his successes
Former Strictly Come Dancing contestant Pete Wicks has openly revealed a question he despises being asked, claiming it leaves him feeling “pressured.” The television personality recently featured on ITV’s Loose Women, discussing the inquiry he faces “all the time,” and it’s not necessarily what you’d anticipate people would ask him.
Pete, 36, initially rose to prominence on The Only Way is Essex programme in 2015, and a decade on he commands 2 million followers on Instagram, whilst hosting a podcast alongside mate Sam Thompson from Made in Chelsea. However, despite his individual achievements, there’s a “never ending question” people constantly pose to him, and he’s fed up with it.
During his Loose Women appearance, he confessed: “I get asked all the time, ‘When are you having kids? When are you going to settle down?’ because I’m heading towards 40.
“And I do find it a bit of an annoying question. You know, no one asks people who have settled down why they have settled down. Do you know what I mean?
“Like, no one says to someone with kids, ‘Why have you got kids?’ So why would you ask someone who doesn’t have kids why they don’t?”
He subsequently explained that he believes there’s “more pressure on men,” though acknowledged “women get it worse”.
Olivia Attwood, 34, also featured on the programme, and she confirmed it’s a question which remains “constant” in her existence too.
She explained, particularly now that she’s “married,” people assume that within the “next two years,” she’ll desire children, and “if you don’t they wanna know why”.
Olivia confessed that she doesn’t feel “drawn to” having children at the moment, stating: “people minimise how huge it is to bring a human into this world and raise them”.
She added: “It’s not just a baby. It’s a full-on adult, like at some point, you’re responsible for them for the rest of your life, and I’m just not in that place yet”.
In response to her video, viewers shared their own experiences, noting that the pressure doesn’t stop after having one child.
One woman commented: “Then when you have one, it’s always ‘when are you having a second’?”
Another responded: “My baby isn’t even 5 months, and people keep asking when he’s having a little brother or sister. Like, probably never? One and done, thank you”.
A different user shared: “THIS! After a nine-year fertility journey, we are 6 months pregnant, and people are already asking about us having a second child. Like, can we just have this one first?! Also, it completely diminishes the effort it’s taken to get to this point!”
However, another woman disagreed, writing: “Because we’re here to procreate, that’s all, so it’s weird to people if you don’t have kids, it’s not that deep”.
“We aren’t here to procreate. We are here to live our own lives the way we want to, not how society tells us to,” a TikTok user retorted.