Peter Andre broke down as he confessed his mother's deteriorating health is taking a toll on him. The 53-year-old singer opened up during his first appearance on his daughter Princess's ITV2 reality show, The Princess Diaries.
Andre revealed he has been struggling to cope with watching his mother's condition worsen after she was diagnosed with both Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. The conversation turned emotional while he prepared pancakes with his children Junior and Princess.
Avoiding the inevitable
When Junior asked if Andre planned to visit his grandmother (Yiayia in Greek), the singer admitted he has been putting it off. Princess, 19, explained the family's difficulty: her grandmother lives in Australia, far from the UK.
"My dad's mum... she's really poorly right now. She's got Parkinson's. She can't really communicate," Princess said. "It's really sad because she lives in Australia... and it's not like we can just fly out and see her."
Andre acknowledged that Parkinson's has been more challenging than expected. "I thought it was all the tremors... It's more this thing where the facial expressions stop. It just becomes like a stare," he said.
Struggling to sleep
The father-of-four admitted he is terrified that each visit might be the last. "I'm so scared to see her like that," he said. "And I know it's not about me and it's about her. You don't understand the anxiety it's given me. It's making me sick. I can't even sleep properly at night."
He maintains daily contact via FaceTime, but finds the calls challenging because his mother cannot adjust the camera herself. "I talk to her constantly," he said emotionally. "But the camera's hardly ever on her because she can't move it."
Children offer support
Princess expressed her empathy: "I could not live without my mum or my dad... I can't even imagine how he's feeling when it's about his mum." Junior urged his father to travel to Australia, saying, "I would honestly just go."
Andre confessed he keeps procrastinating: "I don't want it to be the last time. And I don't want to go on my own."
Junior added, "It's not nice seeing my dad upset about my Yaiya... she's really old and she's deteriorating. Me and Princess have seen her recently. It's really hard to see... Dad gets very emotional about it."
The Princess Diaries is available to stream on ITVX.
