Pete Wicks feels "mentally drained" following his split from Megan McKenna.
The ‘Only Way is Essex’ hunk is looking forward to taking some time to focus on himself for a while after the 20th series wrapped up on Wednesday (03.05.17) because he feels wiped out from all the rows he had with the brunette beauty.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper, he said: "It has definitely been a hard series and I need this break; I need to concentrate on myself. ‘TOWIE’ can be mentally draining sometimes. Hopefully by the next series I will be fully loaded."
Although they’re no longer together, the 28-year-old reality TV star is adamant he’ll always have a lot of love for Megan, whom he started dating last year until their relationship was rocked by infidelity claims, and wants to remain friends with her.
He explained: "I will never, ever dog Megan. I don’t think that’s the right thing to do. Just because she’s my ex does not mean I will turn my back on her."
Pete and Megan seemed like the perfect couple last summer but things hit the rocks when the 24-year-old beauty found out that the heavily-inked heartthrob had been sending sexy messages to his ex-girlfriend and various other girls behind her back.
The pair have attempted to patch up their differences but came to blows at the beginning of last month when security was forced to intervene during filming.
A source said at the time: "They immediately started a heated discussion after Megan saw pictures of Pete ‘cosying up to’ Chloe Sims recently.
"Megan called him [Pete] up on the photos and asked what’s going on.
"She said she was amazed Chloe didn’t try to reach out to explain that there’s nothing in it. Pete defended Chloe and said nothing had happened and that she hadn’t done anything wrong, but Megan started screaming, ‘Why are you sticking up for her?’
"Megan accused Pete of cheating on her and sleeping with a girl in Scotland and he threw it back in her face, saying ‘I wasn’t cheating but I did text her’."