Mark Wright says he 'hated his life' in early TOWIE days but isn't 'ashamed'

Mark Wright has opened up about his early showbiz career, admitting he “hated his life” when TOWIE first begun.

The reality TV star, 34, said he watched the very first episodes of the show when they first aired and he felt embarrassed by them.

Speaking on The Harry Redknapp Show, Mark said that despite all this, he isn’t “ashamed” of being part of TOWIE, which launched his celebrity career as a TV presenter turned footballer.

He was the star of the show when TOWIE launched in 2010, and his doomed relationship with his ex girlfriend Lauren Goodger became its main plotline.

Mark said: “I watched it back and I hated my life, because I’ve come from football, East End family, and then it was half of the kind of crew going, ‘shut up!’ and all this, and I’m watching me being part of it.

“By the way I’m not ashamed of it.

“I absolutely loved it, but the first episode I watched I was like, ‘what have I done?'”

He continued: “I needed a couple of days to figure out what I want to do.

“Then once I relaxed and realised what it was, and it was a bit of tongue in cheek and a bit of fun, it kind of blew up from there.”

Mark knew that being on the show could be a platform into launching a bigger career.

He went on: “Straight away I said in my head, right, how am I going to turn this into something bigger and I knew I needed to leave quickly and do the jungle to show the real me, because I was a bit of a donut on that show, I wanted to just go straight into TV presenting.

“And that’s kind of what I did you know.”

Mark went on to work on the American show EXTRA as a TV presenter and he currently presents on Heart’s Morning Show.