Secret Life star says lad culture isn’t a problem – it’s just pushing boundaries

Promiscuous Aiden Pestell shocked viewers with puerile humour and eating fish-heads in The Secret Life of Students.

Aiden was blasted for inserting a vodka filled tampon up his bum. He was also criticised for celebrating a newly caught STI when text his friends saying: “Got chlamydia! Banter.”

But now the 20-year-old has defended his actions, saying lad culture is a myth and he was simply radical.

Boldly, he said: “It’s a stigma which has been used on extroverted men, the perception of lad culture is a myth. Everybody has a sense of belonging from feminists to tree huggers – you are who you are and that’s what makes a human unique.

“On the Secret Life of Students, what I created was radical, something different, not promoting lad culture.”

In one episode, Aiden ate a fish head as part of a nek-nominate, had a string of one night stands and tested positive for an STD. The future banker became a target for abuse after crying when he decided to move house.

The gym fanatic from Leamington Spa added: “Pushing boundaries is something which makes up the DNA of this so called lad culture. What I did on the show was something different. I was born with tiger blood. I’m unique.

“With the relation between sexism and lad culture it’s in both sexes – girls are just as guilty. Nobody is perfect.

“At the time of the show I was young and wanted to be a statsman, it was sex and nothing else. I think the girls are naive to think that it’s any more than that especially if they’re willing to sleep with you at the first meet.

“If a girls makes me wait, then I have respect. I wouldn’t really want to be in a relationship with a girl if I know she is easy.”

Aiden wouldn’t reveal details of his summer in London and Leamington Spa, saying: “I did stuff people could only dream off.”

He has now suspended his studies at Leicester and moved to Beijing, with plans to continue his degree at a later date at a different uni. He claims it would be too much hassle in Leicester as he is too well known.

He is learning Mandarin while teaching English, with plans to get a brokerage license. The culture shock in China has taught him of the danger of drinking and drug use in Britain.

He said: “From living in China for half a year, it’s a completely different culture. Because of the one child policy a lot of Chinese girls have a lot of pressure from the parents to get married young.

“The Chinese girls only really see men as potential boyfriends or husbands. Be it they’re a lot more respectable than most British girls, they’re boring.

“I’ve had a massive shock into the drinking culture. It’s completely different – you can spot a Brit a mile off in a club. We’re drinking animals compared to everyone else and I don’t know why.

“It’s scary to think how and why we feel the need to drink so much, take drugs, on nights out. Everyone else will drink to a tipsy feeling. The british partying culture is someone that needs to be addressed.”

Aiden will return to Leamington in June.