The singer has candidly shared updates on his health in recent months
Pete Doherty is set to take to Glastonbury’s Other Stage with The Libertines on Sunday (June 29), but what is his net worth, how is his life away from the UK and why have fans been concerned about his health?
After co-forming The Libertines in the late nineties, Pete has flickered in and out of the limelight with him also gaining attention for his party lifestyle and issues with addiction.
Best known for co-fronting The Libertines with Carl Barât, Pete has racked up a total net worth of $2m (£1.4m) over his career, according to celebritynetworth.com.
Away from his career of music-making and his party lifestyle, Pete has now carved out a quieter life in Étretat, a resort half an hour’s drive from Le Havre in Normandy.
Pete, with his now wife Katia de Vidas, made the move from Margate to the scenic French town in 2020 where the pair live a more sedated life in comparison to the rock star’s hell raiser days.
With their baby daughter, Billie-May, the pair have settled into their cliffside home above the town’s promenade.
Pete, 46, has been open about the health issues he faces, with him admitting that years of drug and alcohol abuse in his younger years have taken a toll on his body.
Speaking to documentary presenter Louis Theroux in 2023, Pete shared updates on his health with him, even ominously saying that he felt death was “lurking”.
He said in BBC’s Louis Theroux Interviews: “You are looking at a very sick man. I’ve battered it, haven’t I, I’ve f***ing caned it.
“[The] heroin and the crack… I surrendered to that, and then it was cocaine and the smoking and the alcohol, and now it’s cheese and the saucisson, and the sugar in the tea.
“It’s all gotta go. They told me a little while ago if you don’t change your diet then you’re gonna have diabetes and cholesterol problems.
“Death’s lurking, you know what I mean? That’s why I carry that stick.”
In recent months Pete has opened up to his fans on being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and speaking to The Times he revealed that his health had been “touch and go” with him being unsure if he would need his feet to be amputated.
The star explained that he had lost feeling in his extremities after his toes turned black in January, this year, which led to concerns over the possibility of surgery.
On his health scares, he said: “It was a real wake-up call. Now I allow myself a gin and tonic once a week, but I’ve basically not been drinking and have got my blood sugar to a good level, so my toes are healing.”
Since facing increased health scares, Pete shared in a recent interview with Fearne Cotton on her Happy Place podcast, that he felt there was now more pressure to create music.
He explained: “I’d think, ‘I’m dying. I’ve got to write a brilliant song right now… that would happen a lot.”
However he shared: “I’m not that arsed really about writing. I love playing music but that need to write and create, it was fuelled by anxiety and darkness.”
On what advice he would give his younger self, Pete told Kirsty Young’s Young Again podcast on BBC Radio 4 at the end of 2024: “In my mind, I can imagine myself looking at myself saying this, ‘just get some sleep, just get some sleep from time to time, just get your head down’.
“Get some sleep, because that was always where things would go seriously wrong, two or three days up and then stupid things, like criminal things, where you don’t really don’t know what you’re doing.”
Pete rose to fame as co-frontman of The Libertines with Carl, releasing four studio albums with the band. He also fronted Babyshambles and has released three solo albums.
The Libertines were known for the fractious friendship between Pete and Carl, and their raucous live performances, the band has scored two UK top 10 singles and two UK number one albums.
The musician, however, will now take to Glastonbury this week to perform with The Libertines, who last played at Worthy Farm in 2022.
The group will open for Rod Stewart who is performing in the festival’s iconic legend’s slot.
