@thelandlord_mikeyandrews

Creative Direction: Kitty Cowell: Words Peter Wellman: Photography: Nicholas O’ Donnell
Styling: Bluebell Wu Assistant Stylist: Emily Cornwall Shot On Location @ Indra Studios.

Mikey Andrews, Bodybuilder, star of Made in Chelsea and featured in the one of two of the UK’s Bodybuilding magazines, UK Beef, started life in and out of hospital. He’s had over 100 medical procedures. He sits down to talk to Peter Wellman about body building, sexuality, and the importance of the pose. Mikey Andrews calls in from his day job, working in a pub in Lincoln. ‘I’m not much of a barman,
really. I’m more of a chat your head off guy at your dinner table. Which is really inconvenient because people don’t like talking when they’re eating.’ He is humble and open, easy in his attitude. When he’s not working at a pub his passion is body building. ‘So I started that through the gym and my grandparents say it’s just a phase. He won’t keep this long and that they gimme a six month timeframe. And it’s been, it’s been 15 years.’
He first starting competing in the ‘Body Power’ competitions in 2017. ‘And being a gym bloke. I thought, oh I can I do that. But I was conscious of my scars. So I thought shall I brave it? And I did.’ After going down, his worries were not realised ‘So I went down and they had a look at me and they said well to be honest, the scars are not the first thing we notice.’ After this he was invited to audition for a body building show where he met the photographer Alex Whiteman. ‘So Alex is in my opinion, probably one of the best photographers that I’ve met and that’s not to underestimate any other photographer, but Alex did a lot for my
confidence.’
Mikey has not had an easy journey into bodybuilding, ‘I’ve had 140 odd medical procedures, that was the count at the time. And I’ve got these scars and I think that if I can do it, maybe it’ll motivate other people that have got some sort of difficulty, some difference, to get

“FOR A LONG TIME I STRUGGLED WITH MY SEXUALITY AND I FELT ASHAMED UNTIL I HAD HELP UNDERSTANDING THERE’S NOT ANYTHING ‘TO BE ASHAMED OF‘
”

up. Rather than believing that they’re not much good or anything like that.’ ‘So you had to walk up and down in a T shape, do a few poses here and there. To be honest in a room full of people that I didn’t know and just
me in my underpants. I couldn’t have timed it any worse, really, because I was sat there and suddenly had the urge to pee.’ Although he did make the Body Power fitness model finals. ‘I remember Alex said, you can always tell a lot about someone based on their silhouette. A person who’s just stood tall, narrow and quite
close is a boring silhouette. But when you start making spaces that silhouette, it becomes more interesting.’ Although that competition didn’t go the best. ‘I didn’t do well at that first competition, 13 days before that I’d come out of hospital. Cause the oesophagus collapsed once again’. But even with that, it didn’t stop him, ‘So even though I was 13 days out, less than 24 hours later, I was back in the posing studio.’
Mikey has a unique medical history that started from birth. ‘My first surgery was when I was one
day old. They had to cut me open to reconnect my oesophagus to my stomach. Because it had unattached. In doing that, my trachea collapsed because they found that they were connected in some way, there is a name for it, but it’s so long. Like if I spelled it out, it’d be taller than me!’ ‘I’d lost two pounds of blood in one operation. You know, remember I went under surgery in Grimsby hospital and I woke up in Sheffield
children’s hospital.’ Unfortunately for Mikey, it didn’t just stop there. ‘So I came back around and so eventually they found that I had hearts issues as well. And my heart valves were not pumping blood around
the body as they should. And so I had a scar right down my side, because the front was too damaged to go in on that angle. Which is a little bit of an issue cuz it sort of left me with a sort of, not so symmetrical body.’ But Mikey decided to improve his own situation. ‘And so obviously as I say, at 16, 18 year old, I
started the gym and that started helping my breathing a lot.’

And he may not be with us a long time, but I’m Now I have the four or five championships to my name. And it may not be a big stage. It’s a title, nonetheless, that was never supposed to be part of my life plan.’
His Grandparents have always supported him through this, even if they didn’t necessarily believe him ‘And so when I achieved that, that was funny. My grandma said, so all this body building stuff is real. I was like 15 years down the line. She went “So it’s real”. I says “Yes, it’s real, I haven’t been lifting inflatable weights”. I says “for 15 years” and she says, excuse my French, “F*ckin’ hell!” You know, and my granddad said,
holding these two medals, “They’re not light.” Despite these struggles, Mikey has pushed on. ‘You learn no matter who you are how well progressed you are, you know you’re learning every day. As I say, yes, there’s been lazy days. There’s been days where I’ve struggled with depression and over the years and that’s not a
fun thing. But if you’re able to go and get help for that, you do come out of it. If you lay on your sofa, nothing’s going to happen. Nothing’s going to change. He’s going to wake up the next day and do what you did yesterday and the day before. I struggled, my relationship with my parents were not great

Mikey had struggles with sexuality throughout his school years. Being bisexual, he questioned his own feelings. ‘You know, why am I looking at men like this? Why am I looking at girls like this? You know, where am I? What am I doing? And so I had a boyfriend and I’m very good friends with him now, but I still struggled for a long time to tell people. I didn’t want anyone thinking I’m any less of a person or a man.’ ‘For a long time I struggled with my sexuality and I felt ashamed until I had help understanding there’s not anything to be ashamed of. And so here I am, openly bisexual.’ An important moment for him was coming out
to his grandparents ‘That’s it Sweeps, little pub slash cafe. And I took my boyfriend at the time
along and I sat my Nanna and had a brew.’ ‘So we sat there and she says, “So who’s this?”. “Is this your friend?” I was like “No, it’s not” “Oh, what’s he? Why is he here?” And I thought about it and I was like, look, I thought to myself, just tell it. I said “It’s my boyfriend.” And she went “Oh,

Mikey has done all kinds of work, including calendars helping mental health charities and being on the TV. ‘I worked with the Made in Chelsea crew. And I did some work there, it was fantastic filming with them. And I do plan to do some more work with the Made in Chelsea guys.’ In April he continues with wrestling, making
his new debut after starting when he was 19 ‘I started to hate it being the smaller guy. Cause I wasn’t a big guy’ ‘But I think putting the size on that I have, has helped me along as well. It’s allowed me to take more of a hit from opponents and allowed me to put more into wrestling.’ But through all this Mikey has continued ‘I still go through those lows, lazy periods where I don’t want to get out of bed. But then I pick myself up
and I just remember where I’ve been and where I am now.’ Mikey Andrews make’s his debut with Lion
Wrestling Promotions and can be found on TikTok.