When Judge Catherine Burton issued an arrest warrant for Katie Price after she failed to show up for her bankruptcy hearing again this week, no one was more disappointed than her loyal friends and family.
Here she was again, in the news for all the wrong reasons. She had failed to respond to the summons and pay her debts – reportedly a staggering £3.2 million – after being declared bankrupt twice.
Instead, she flew to Turkey for yet more cosmetic surgery – this time a £10,000 facelift – with her boyfriend and reality TV star JJ Slater, although she insisted the trip was “for work”.
She now risks being arrested at the airport on her return. She could also end up in jail, something she narrowly escaped in 2021 when she was given a suspended sentence for drink-driving while disqualified, insisting she was going to the Priory “to get better”.
Her behavior has been met with disbelief by her friends, who have repeatedly tried to impress upon the 46-year-old the importance of respecting the law, further humiliating her teenage children, Junior and Princess.
Katie Price goes under the knife at a Turkish clinic for a £10,000 facelift, only to be arrested at the airport when she returns after failing to turn up for her bankruptcy hearing
Katie’s teenage children Junior, 19, and Princess, 17. Both are trying to build their own celebrity careers – Junior as a singer and Princess as a model
Now 19 and 17, they are both trying to build their own celebrity careers. Junior is a singer and Princess is a model. Those close to the family fear that Katie’s misbehavior will overshadow their hard work.
They say seeing their mother arrested at the airport could be the last straw. The one silver lining, sources close to the siblings say, is that they had a safe upbringing with their devoted father, Peter Andre.
Katie, who started her career as a Page 3 girl in the mid-90s under the name Jordan, and Peter, a singer turned TV personality, were married for four years after meeting on 2004’s I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!
“Junior and Princess are old enough now to know right from wrong,” says a close friend. “They are well-adjusted, they grew up in a family where there were boundaries.
“So it’s hard for them to see their mother acting like that, it’s sad. Junior’s in the studio releasing music and Princess is getting work offers everywhere, but they’re so anxious that all they’re asked about is Katie. She’s out of control.”
The Mail can reveal that months go by without Junior and Princess seeing their mother. In fact, a meeting just over two weeks ago was thought to be the first since Mother’s Day.
Princess is said to be most concerned about her mother. ‘Princess is Katie’s mini-me, they have a different relationship, but Junior is pretty much over it. It’s devastating – Katie is their mother and they will always love her, but enough is enough.’
Katie and her eldest son Harvey, 22. He has Prader-Willi syndrome, septo-optic dysplasia and a learning disability
They wouldn’t be the only ones losing patience with Katie’s self-destructive behaviour. Bankruptcy and Companies Court Judge Catherine Burton said the former glamour model had been given “very clear warnings” that she had to attend Tuesday’s hearing.
Mrs Price was due to answer questions from lawyers representing the trustees of her two bankruptcies in the specialist bankruptcy court in London.
A judge said at an earlier hearing that she risked arrest if she did not return to court. In issuing the warrant, Burton said Price had offered only “partial cooperation” and had not provided “the most basic information” regarding her bankruptcies. She added: “They have not received any money or explanation… She agreed to pay it and did not.”
It later turned out that she had flown to Turkey.
She insisted she was “away working on a documentary about corrective surgery.” But the backlash over her absence prompted a statement in which she, again, blasted her critics and refused to take responsibility.
On Tuesday night, she wrote on Instagram: ‘I have and will continue to work with the relevant people in cases to the best of my ability. Despite the consistent stories that attempt to demean me about my personal setbacks, I am not ashamed of them.
“I am responsible for my situation and I am doing my best to get out of it and make things right.”
She also hit out at the media for “humiliating me and my family”. Ironic words from someone who has made a career out of self-publicity since she was a teenager. It has been quite a fall from grace for Katie. She and Peter were once one of Britain’s most popular couples and have featured in several ITV documentaries.
At one point she was said to be worth over £20 million thanks to her lucrative television work and equestrianism. She is a keen horse rider.
But it has emerged that she has not been paying taxes on her earnings. In February, she was told she had to pay 40 percent of her monthly income from her latest venture – posting risqué images on OnlyFans – to her bankruptcy trustee for three years. The following month, she was declared bankrupt again, due to an unpaid tax bill.
Katie was first declared bankrupt in November 2019 and again in March this year over an unpaid tax bill of almost £762,000.
The Mail can reveal that months go by without Junior and Princess seeing their mother
It has emerged that she owes huge sums: £142,405 and £196,735 for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 tax years, plus £140,000 in VAT.
In addition, she was hit with late payment fines and interest and is now in debt of more than £3.2 million.
Her financial situation was so bad that Katie was recently evicted from her £2million home near Horsham, West Sussex, nicknamed the Mucky Mansion.
Since then, the lawn has been mowed and the rubbish cleared, and this week it went on the market for £1.5 million, while she lives in a more modest home 15 miles away.
And then there are her driving bans. Katie has lost her licence a total of five times. She was banned from driving for two years after crashing her BMW in September 2021, and was also given a 16-week suspended sentence for drink driving.
In March, she was fined £880 for driving without insurance and a licence. Magistrates heard that Katie was stopped by police in her Range Rover on the A14 bypass in Kettering, Northamptonshire, on August 2 last year while disqualified.
She has been convicted several times for traffic violations, including driving without a license in 2019 and 2021.
On Thursday, Katie was photographed at a consultation in Istanbul in preparation for surgery, wearing a surgical gown and hairnet, with the surgeon’s markings on her face.
“Katie has no idea that posting these types of pictures on social media isn’t going to help her case,” a friend said. “We keep telling her and she still doesn’t listen.”
Katie also brought her eldest child, son Harvey, 22, along for the trip. Harvey, the result of a brief affair with footballer Dwight Yorke, has Prader-Willi syndrome, septo-optic dysplasia and a learning disability.
“She has Harvey with her, which is a strange decision considering she said she works, but they are still very close,” a friend said.
You wonder if she did it to avoid getting into trouble.
‘Even though Katie has done some really stupid things in her life, you have to have a lot of sympathy for her: Harvey.
He is her life, she adores him and takes very good care of him, but she also knows that the PR of tying her up in front of his eyes while he is in a wheelchair will backfire on the police.’
If and when that moment comes, her anxious family will have to wait.
As one exasperated friend said, “We’re terrified this isn’t going to end well for Katie. We just hope she listens.”