Mckeown's 'Shame' At Secret Life Of Booze And Gay Sex

In a tell-all interview, the singer confesses his "shame" at cheating on his wife, hiding his sexuality, and almost destroying his family after the assault when he was just 19 years old.

But the Shang-A-Lang hitmaker admits he is "90 per cent fixed" after finally facing his demons and undergoing rehab in a bid to rebuild his life.

MCKeown agreed to have treatment at a clinic in California as part of a Living TV documentary on rehab centres - and told camera crews of the sex attack which changed his life.

He says, "Date rape is the best way I can think of to explain how I was cajoled into a situation through drugs into having sex with another man. It happened in America in a hotel room. I was given (sedative) Quaaludes, a drug for lowering your inhibitions and making you horny. If a girl took it she'd be all over you.

"Afterwards I felt really used and abused. I never told anybody about it, not even the other guys in the band, because I was ashamed. Maybe part of the shame was that I actually enjoyed it. Before that, I always thought I was straight, but what was happening to me was very erotic and I felt pleasure from it.

"Now I think a lot of the shame I've felt ever since has to do with the person who did that to me. I hated him. I tried to drink it away and push that memory into obscurity."

MCKeown, 53, admits he has frequently met up for gay sex with strangers in the years since the incident, despite his 30-year marriage to Peko.

But he insists his course of rehab has cured his lust for gay sex, adding: "Since I've been home I've not had the inclination to phone anybody and say, 'Do you fancy a sexual encounter in the woods?' Maybe now it's not a secret it's not so naughty any more."