Strictly's John Whaite admits he changed his name after cruel childhood bullying

dailystar.co.uk:

Steph’s Packed Lunch panel discussed the idea of surnames and Bake-Off star John Whaite admitted that he has previously changed his, alongside co-star Russell Kane.Lewis Hamilton has just announced that he is changing his name to include his mother’s surname, Larbalestier.John told the camera that Lewis has said he “doesn’t understand” why people lose their name when they get married and turned to his co-stars for their thoughts.He began the discussion by admitting that he was born John Cunningham, but changed it to Whaite through high school and college because he wanted to “reinvent himself” by using his mum’s maiden name.Russell Kane began laughing which Steph pointed out and told the audience that “he knows why” it was changed but it “can’t be said on TV”.“Let’s just say, children are very cruel,” said Russell.John then said that he would give a demonstration on Instagram after the show before he admitted that the name change made him feel “like a new man”.Steph then moved on to Russell and checked that he had also previously changed his name.He said that he’s a “second generation name-change family” because his father also took a different one.Steph asked why that was, to which Russell replied that it was the “same reason he dropped his”.The comedian said that it was because his previous last name was “foreign, so people couldn’t pronounce it” and joked that he should “make a Channel 4 documentary about being triggered”.“I should have been celebrating my ethnic identity,” he said, before revealing that the name was easy to pronounce but hard to spell.Kane then said that he “got bored” of having to try and explain himself so he “ended up changing it” but found the rebrand “quite exciting”.The 46-year-old then went on.