Gareth Gates was well and truly out of his squeaky clean Pop Idol persona as he stripped off during a racy Manchester Pride performance on Saturday night.
The now 42-year-old singer was only 17 when he won over millions of fans during the talent show with his spiky hair and boyish charm – an image he continued to project throughout his career.
But it looks like a rebrand is now on the way as he showed off his toned physique in a series of very racy outfits as he took to the stage for the event.
He went shirtless for the performance before taking off his jeans in a dramatic move to reveal nothing but tight black boxers underneath.
But his riskiest look was a pair of pink bottomless chaps that showed off his behind.
Gareth looked like he was having the time of his life on stage as he put on an animated show and showed off his best dance moves.
Gareth Gates dropped his squeaky clean Pop Idol persona as he stripped off during a racy Manchester Pride performance on Saturday night
The now 42-year-old singer was just 17 when he won over millions of fans with his spiky hair and boyish charm on Pop Idol – an image he continued to project throughout his career.
Seen on Pop Idol in 2002
It comes after Gareth’s ex Katie Price said last month he ‘still looks fit’ as she reflected on their TV reunion, 24 years after he lost his virginity to the star at the age of 17.
The former glamor model, now 48, was 21 years old and six months pregnant with her son Harvey when she deflowered the pop star.
Gareth denied the relationship but later admitted it was true, assuming it was Katie who sold the story to the press.
And 24 years later, Gareth appeared (alongside some of her other exes) in Katie’s Sky documentary Katie Price: Nothing to Hide.
During press for the show, Katie was asked who surprised her most during the documentary – with the star saying it was Gareth, while saying she even still likes him.
Appearing on Hits Radio’s Breakfast Show, she said: ‘Gareth Gates. Imagine if you were with someone twenty-five years ago and then suddenly they ghost you and you don’t really know why. And now I know why.
‘People in his head and he thought I had started something, when in fact I hadn’t. Twenty-five years later he finds out it has nothing to do with me, and you see his reaction.
“I think people think it was like a one-night stand between me and him, when it wasn’t.”
Host Will Best chimed in, “You can tell how much he cared about you, and I think that still is the case because he’s relieved when he finds out.
But it looks like a rebrand is now on the cards as he showed off his muscular physique in a series of very racy outfits as he took to the stage for the event
He was shirtless for the performance before taking off his jeans in a dramatic move, revealing only a pair of tight black boxer shorts underneath
But singer Gareth’s riskiest look was a pair of pink bottomless chaps that showed off his behind
Gareth looked like he was having the time of his life on stage as he put on an animated show and showed off his assets
It comes after Gareth’s ex Katie Price said last month he ‘still looks fit’ as she reflected on their TV reunion, 24 years after he lost his virginity to the star when he was just 17.
He showed off his toned and tanned torso as he took to the stage at the Manchester Pride event
For a different look, he wore gray jeans and a white vest as he lifted it up to show off his torso
‘It’s like he’s been wrong all this time, you’d think people would say, ‘Oh no, fuck’, but he’s relieved. He’s going to put you back in his mind, and that’s positive.’
Katie continued, “Put it this way, if I was his girlfriend and I watched what he said, I wouldn’t be happy. Am I right or wrong?’
Then she added cheekily: ‘And he still looks fit I must say…’.
Earlier at the official launch of the series, Katie revealed she was shocked to hear Gareth would finally speak out after claiming he ‘ghosted’ her.
She told the audience: ‘Imagine meeting someone 25 years ago and then you become some kind of ghost. You don’t know why, and then you go 25 years further and then you get the answers.’
Explaining that he thought it was Katie who had sold their story to the press, she continued: ‘Because he thought I had done something I didn’t do, and now he finds out it really wasn’t me.
‘The shock on his face and the shock on mine – everyone thought, “You and Gareth, that was the one that got away!”.
During a performance at the Great business podcast last month, presenter Jamie Laing asked Gareth if Katie had deflowered him.
He replied: ‘No comment. I will just say that I was extremely inexperienced with a girl who was extremely experienced. I understood why she thought that.
‘I’ve never talked about relationships. I believe that relationships are between two people and I couldn’t believe that someone else was selling stories about very, very intimate details.
“And I was shocked and I learned a lot about that – about people and about the industry, and about trust I guess. I would never have done that to her or anyone else, and so it was a real learning curve for me.
‘I felt exactly the same at the time. And that was a shame, because she is a very sweet girl. But I couldn’t quite believe that someone would do that, I guess.
‘I became quite wary of trusting people after that, because that was such a big thing on such a huge, huge scale – it was everywhere.
“It became the most important thing in every interview. Everyone just wanted to know about that and not about my brand new album that I had been working tirelessly on.
‘I thought: “It’s a shame that I have to talk about this now, when I really just want to be an artist.” That was tough. It just made me extremely wary of people in the industry, I think.
“You become very careful about what you text people, what you say to people. I was still a boy then, I wasn’t even an adult yet.’
Meanwhile, Katie previously spoke about their romance in 2024, when she confirmed: ‘I took his virginity when I was six months pregnant.’
Speaking on the podcast Anything Goes with James English, the presenter shook his head as Katie then laughed: ‘What? You ask me. What are you looking at because I was pregnant?
“Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean I can’t have a boyfriend.”
