Dawn Neesom, columnist for our sister publication Woman's Own, gives her view on another spectacular comeback from the Pricey.
If there’s one thing certain about Katie Price it’s that you never know what she’s going to do next.
The 42-year-old was declared bankrupt in November 2019 and appeared, via Skype, at the Insolvency and Companies Court last month.
And in true Katie style the story that emerged was astonishing.
Not only did the mum of five reveal she’d recently suffered a ‘bad breakdown’ and spent five weeks in celebrity rehab clinic the Priory – at a mere £5k a week – she went on to say she’d ‘lost everything’.
Well provided you didn’t include the £1.3m Sussex mansion, trendy Beetle car and horse she owned.
And there was the small matter of her still earning approximately £45,000 a month. Whoa. Hold on there. We all know Katie’s motto is ‘the Pricey is always right’, but when the price concerned is an income of over half a million quid a year you have to ask yourself, how the hell is she bankrupt? And how on earth is she still earning it?
A tough time
Even by Katie’s standards the last 18 months have been chaotic. As well as her bankruptcy hearing her eldest son Harvey – who she had with footballer Dwight Yorke – spent two months in intensive care with a mystery illness. As Harvey, 18, also suffers from an array of problems including partial blindness, Prader-Willi syndrome, autism, and learning and behavioural difficulties, it was obviously a worrying time.
Not helped by her mum Amy suffering a terminal illness; her daughter Princess’ puppy Rolo dying after being suffocated by a chair; her house being burgled; splitting with fiancé Kris Boyson, 31; her second husband Alex Reid, 45, giving an interview claiming he had suffered ‘years of bullying’ by her and her third husband Kieran Hayler, 33, then also adding that she’d treated him like ‘s**t’ too and was a complete ‘b***h’. First husband Peter Andre, 47, now remarried to doctor Emily MacDonagh, 31, was mercifully quiet.
Money matters
The $64,000 question is just how is she doing it? Her modelling work dried up years ago, her clothing and make-up ranges have flopped after initial success, the ghost writer of her popular fiction books sadly passed away and magazines and newspapers no longer pay huge amounts of money to chart her every move.
The only source of income appears to be a new YouTube channel charting the never-ending chaos that is her life, as well as sponsored Instagram posts.
Little wonder even her biggest fans doubt the true extent of the endless tale of woe and disaster.
The new Mr Price
If there’s one thing Katie – or possibly her raunchier alter ego Jordan – likes more than plastic surgery and drama, it’s men. So despite all of this utter madness, she fell for a new man, car dealer Carl Woods, 31, and promptly whisked him off on holiday to Turkey. As you do when you’re so skint you’ve been declared bankrupt…
Before you could think this through though Katie was busy declaring a slightly bemused-looking Carl ‘the one’ and hiring a team of people to ensure everything went smoothly.
Obviously these handlers are working for the love of it because supposedly skint Katie also found the dosh to stump up on yet more cosmetic surgery while in Turkey. For her and Carl.
Just before they left for their hols, Katie had some lip fillers done, which swelled to such an extent she looked like she’d been whacked in the face by a shovel. Still the new his and hers teeth veneers, at roughly £10,000, seem to have worked.
You wonder what the judge in her bankruptcy case makes of all this spending when there are debtors to pay, not least the Inland Revenue.
How would you feel if you ran a struggling small business owed money by Katie and witnessed her blowing thousands on holidays and cosmetic surgery?
Still broken
I’ve known Katie – or Kate as her family still call her – since she was a beautiful, natural and very feisty 17-year-old.
Read more: Katie Price reunites with all five children after six weeks apart
The bottom line is that Katie is driven by a huge inferiority complex. Without the constant attention and headlines she feels worthless. I truly don’t believe Katie would be as far off the rails as she appears to be these days, though, if it weren’t for the end of her marriage to the one true love of her life, Peter Andre. That broke her and she’s still trying to fix herself.
Katie’s bankruptcy case is due to continue in October. But brace yourself for an awful lot more drama in between.
‘I’ve lost everything but I am here, I’m sorting myself out,’ she says.
And that’s how Katie does what she does.
