Peter Andre is getting intimate with fans on his new Up Close and Personal Tour. But everything he says comes at a cost, writes Chris Price.

In an age when stars can earn a living by revealing their private lives in magazine columns, the prospect of getting a decent interview out of Peter Andre looked bleak.

Every word the Mysterious Girl singer utters is found in bold type on the front of glossies or in the tabloids, be it about his new 23-year-old girlfriend, troubles relating to his ex-wife Katie Price or his angst about the return of his older brother’s kidney cancer.

So when he stops for a chat to plug his Up Close and Personal Tour – which has two Kent dates – he made sure not to give away anything he couldn’t earn a pretty penny for.

“I’ll only say something very brief, but go on,” he said when asked about his other half Emily MacDonagh, who is 16 years his junior.

The pair met through the medical student’s father Ruaraidh, a urology consultant, who performed an emergency operation on Peter to remove kidney stones two years ago.

“Just recently we started dating,” was about as far as he was prepared to go on the subject and he was not much more fluent when it came to discussing turning 40 in February. “Tell me about it,” he positively enthused. “But I feel good. I feel like I’m turning 30.”

His latest tour is in support of his ninth studio album, Angels & Demons, released last month. On it he collaborated with producer Nasri, known for his work with Justin Bieber and Chris Brown.

“There is a lot of light and shade in it,” said Peter, who launched a new men’s clothing range, alpha by Peter Andre, earlier this month.

“There are a lot of deep, dark songs and some happy, feel-good songs. There is everything from electro dance to heavy R&B, pop and even soul. The scale is big.

“Everything I go through every day inspires me lyrically. There is a song on there called Fly Away which is very personal [he later revealed the song was about his girlfriend Emma.] There is another song called, er ... Lift the Sky, which I have written about all three kids.”

One track which is not featuring on the album is one given to him by the late Robin Gibb.

“Me and Robin met a few times and he said ‘I’ve got a song I want to give you’ and we wrote a couple together too,” said Peter.

“It is a very special song and I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it yet. In light of everything that happened I didn’t want to just rush out and release a song. It didn’t feel right. Even if it was for charity it didn’t feel right.”

Musically, Peter thinks his latest album is a step forward from his days as a slick, squeaky-clean pop star whose rippling abs won him so many fans in the 1990s. “I don’t want to be doing fluffy, poppy stuff. I’m over it,” he said.

However, he does keep in shape, despite his advancing years. He does lots of sprints and is aiming for a kung fu black belt within a year, he said.

“I don’t diet. I just eat what I want. If I don’t train then I notice a big difference. If I got my diet right I wouldn’t have to train as much, but I refuse to.”

Peter Andre brings his Up Close and Personal Tour to Margate’s Winter Gardens on Monday, November 19. Box office 01843 296111. He travels to Folkestone’s Leas Cliff Hall on Monday, January 14. Box office 0844 871 7627. Tickets £28.50. Peter’s latest album, Angels & Demons, is out now.