Peter Andre has admitted that he weighs his children in order to make sure they are putting on weight.

The 43-year-old singer is father to son Junior, 11, and daughter Princess, nine – with ex-wife Katie Price, and is expecting a second child with new wife Emily MacDonagh to join two-year-old daughter Amelia.

Peter Andre's wife Emily is expecting his fourth child (Ian West/PA)
Peter Andre’s wife Emily is expecting his fourth child (Ian West/PA)

Speaking on Loose Women, Peter admitted he was “skinny” as a kid, but has concerns about attitudes to eating that his young children may be picking up at school.

He said: “I weigh them because I want them to put on weight.

“When I see if my kids aren’t eating a lot, I get concerned and I’ll keep trying to feed them and feed them, I think it’s a bit of a Greek thing anyway.

“I don’t weight them all the time, but I do weigh them sometimes.”

He explained: “I’ve heard a couple of stories and one of my daughter’s little friends at school, the girl herself saying she thought she was overweight and she was very thin. It concerns me.”

Peter said he tries to do it subtly and would not tell them he is worried about their weight, but he confessed: “I don’t actually know if I’m right or wrong.”

He said: “I say, hey, how cool’s this, let’s see if you can get on the roller-coaster ride? How much do you weigh, how tall are you? It’s my way of trying to boost them up to get the weight on.”

Famous for his abs during the Mysterious Girl-years of his singing carer, Peter said he does not want his children to get as “obsessive” about their bodies as he was.

He said: “I’m 43, I still want to be able to look healthy – but I would never walk around with my shirt off.

“I do it for a calendar (shoot) once a year and I get prepared for it and that’s it and it keeps me in check, but I guess there’s a very good point to that, is it showing the right example?

“As long as it’s a healthy thing I think it’s OK, it’s just as long as it’s not an obsessive thing, which it was in my 20s, which is what I don’t want to encourage my kids to do.”

Ferne McCann, who was a panellist on the show, disagreed with Peter’s approach.

She told him: “I’m not a parent but I probably wouldn’t weigh my children because in this day and age it is so much about body image.

Ferne McCann
Ferne McCann said she would not weigh her children (Yui Mok/PA Wire)

“I’m not necessarily saying what you’re doing is wrong, but if you drill that into them on the scales, they might be more focused on that in later life.”

She said that even now she does not weigh herself.

Panellist Gloria Hunniford said she would not weigh children either.

Viewers at home were divided, with some supportive of him.

But others cautioned that it could cause problems in later life.

Peter has also been announced as a new presenter on ITV’s This Morning, presenting his own mini-series about dads in Britain.