"I felt completely powerless and defenceless to it," he conceded. "Not knowing how to deal with it, I became obsessed with it and the thought that all people wanted to do was talk about the way that I looked, not the way I played football.
"It made me feel so anxious as a young man, living in an apartment with my then-girlfriend, wife now, and not wanting to go out for a period of time. I was obsessed that people would abuse me when, in reality, my mind took over and that probably wouldn't have happened. Because it was something I became so obsessed with, and was so unwilling to internalise and deal with, it affected me in such a way that it really did disrupt my life for a period of time."
One of the saddest parts of 'Not Just a Pretty Face', in addition to the tale of how Luke felt the need to conjure up an imaginary girlfriend to fit in with his new colleagues at United to the extent that he faked a phone-call breaking up with her when there was nobody on the other end of the line, is definitely where he admits he changed his personality as a coping mechanism to deal with the personal abuse.
Having had the pleasure of spending time with him, as he is sometimes a guest for us on MUTV, our former winger is, as the back of his book claims, "one of football's nice guys". There is not an arrogant side to him at all but, if you encountered him around the time the teasing and scrutiny was at its height, this may have been your perception. It is something that must have been hard for Luke to admit.
"When I broke into the team, well in and around the squad, I had some success and got a good contract," he said. "It made me wealthier beyond my wildest dreams, growing up as a child. I developed an ego of feeling that, having that money and being financially well off, made me more important than other people. It changed the way I was and people talking about the way I looked gave me something to fall back on. I don't care what you say.
"A defence mechanism. Understanding that wasn't me and it didn't matter how much I was earning. I was on really good money at the club but, at the same time, was as unhappy as I have ever been in my life. My inability to deal with my feelings and emotions at that time, and that coming together with signing a good contract with the club, at the time, I didn't know how to deal with anything. As a 19 or 20-year-old kid, I was an adult in terms of being over 18 but I had still not learned enough about myself. I knew enough about football but didn't know about any other part of life, just football, football, football.
"A lot of the challenges I did go through allowed me to learn about myself and the journey we're all on, as human beings, is learning about our thoughts, about our feelings and learning to use ourselves to make us as positive as we can possibly be. That is more important than running around a football pitch. It's about having thoughts and feelings and, when it's not like that, understanding why and dealing with that in the most proactive way possible."