In a very frank interview with the Mirror, David Gest has revealed that he hates his looks and will have a deep insecurity about them until the day he dies.

He says:

“I always thought I looked terrible and have never liked my looks,” admits the 53-year-old multimillionaire music promoter.

“I was probably an idiot for having plastic surgery but went ahead because I was incredibly unhappy. But if I could live my life again I wouldn’t do it.”

“My mother told me people said I was beautiful as a boy, but I didn’t hear those comments and don’t remember them,” he says. “Even today, I can’t bear to look in the mirror – it’s too painful.

“When I went under the knife in 1981 I was really heavy. I’m 5ft 9in and weighed 14 and a half stone. One day I thought, ‘Ugh! I look older than the people I represent’. Michael had had a little nose thinning done so I knew I could do something about my face.

“I went to his plastic surgeon, Dr Steven Hoefflin to do something with my nose. All of a sudden I decided to have a nose job and facelift in one operation, and have cheek implants and a cleft chin in another a week later.

“Nobody could have talked me out of it – I’ve been stubborn all my life. As I was wheeled into theatre I wasn’t scared… The only thing racing through my mind was how ugly I looked.”

“Those operations were over a quarter of a century ago, and I’ve never had plastic surgery since then. Yet people make up rumours that I go in and out of the operating room all the time. It is absolutely ridiculous. I did have a hair transplant in 1990 because it was thinning. They took a piece of my own hair from the back of my head and transplanted it on to the front. It was very successful, but I still have a bald patch in the middle which I hate. Although I could get something done about it, I don’t want to have any more surgery because I’m too old.

“When I go out I just fill the patches with black Mac eyeshadow. I don’t care if people know about that, I’ve always been very honest. But people say I’ve tattooed on my eyebrows – that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard!

“I won’t have any more surgery. I realise that I am who I am and it’s what’s inside that counts.”

He adds: “I used to hide behind black shades. But since I made my home in London I’ve realised people don’t like to see a guy wearing sunglasses at night. That was the old David and he’s dead now. “Although I’m happier than I ever have been inside, I still have a deep insecurity about my looks. That will stay with me until the day I die.”

David Gest will lift the lid on this, his celebrity marriage to Liza Minelli and much more in his new ITV show, This Is David Gest.