Crying at the baggage carousel at Malaga airport in the summer of 2009, Katie Price told me her life was “over” after her divorce from her beloved husband, Peter Andre.
Without make-up and wearing a tracksuit, she admitted that ‘things were never going to be okay’ as she revealed her sadness at their four-year marriage coming to an end.
“Everything is so sad,” she admitted – even though she was on holiday to Marbella at the time with new boyfriend Alex Reid.
It was a statement that couldn’t be more poignant today, as Katie – the glamor model formerly known as Jordan – faces the loss of her home and even criminal proceedings after being declared bankrupt for a second time.
Last Monday, a judge at the Insolvency and Companies Court heard how she owes almost £762,000 to HMRC, which filed a bankruptcy petition last October following her tax bills for the years 2020-21 and 2021-22.
Katie Price attended a Celebrity Ex on the Beach event this week
Mrs Price arrives at Crawley Magistrates’ Court in West Sussex to be sentenced for drink driving
It has been revealed she owes huge sums: £142,405 and £196,735 for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 tax years, plus £140,000 in VAT.
She has also been charged late fees and interest and has now racked up debts of more than £3.2 million.
And this isn’t her first bankruptcy; the same thing happened to her in 2019.
But now she could lose everything apart from the ‘essentials’ – including her £2million mansion in West Sussex – after owing the taxman money from her hundreds of thousands of pounds in earnings on OnlyFans, the online subscription service where her fans pay for risqué photos of her.
Price, 45, could even face criminal charges and jail time, just like disgraced tennis star Boris Becker, who also ran afoul of tax authorities in Britain.
On the surface, however, it appears that Price has buried her head in the sand about the extent of her problems. She has continued to have wonderful vacations with her current boyfriend, JJ Slater, who recently starred in the reality TV show Married At First Sight. The couple was recently spotted on a ski trip despite her massive debts.
It’s quite a fall for Price, who was said to be worth £40 million shortly after her divorce from Andre.
But since they divorced in 2010, her life has spiraled out of control so dramatically that some of her closest friends and family members now fear for her well-being.
Katie Price with ex-husband Peter Andre
A friend of the star said: ‘Katie always feared she would never get over Pete. He was the love of her life and when something went wrong, she was heartbroken.
‘Although she often complained that he was strict with her and did not always let her do what she wanted, he kept her on the straight and narrow. He made sure she was on top of her life.
‘But more than that: she was happy with him, she was satisfied.
‘Yes, there were cameras in their house filming their family life for documentaries, but it had been the most normal Katie. She was happy, completely in love and she wanted to live like this forever.
“Pete was her protector. He would see no harm come her way. Her life fell apart when they separated and it gradually got worse, until the biggest car accident.’
Price could certainly have worked with Pete by her side this week when, instead of being present in court, she learned she had gone bankrupt when she appeared on the Mail’s showbiz Straight To The Comments! Podcast.
When she heard the news, she replied, “Oh, get lost… Are you serious, as I sit here? What have I done now?’
She added: “I know I’ve had a court date, I think it was last week or the week before. Because of what’s going on in my life, I’ve actually signed off because… I’m dealing with some serious stuff.
‘There are all different types of bankruptcies, I think they just use the word ‘bankruptcy’. No one actually knows the ins and outs of everything.
‘And believe me, I can’t get away with things either. For example, you cannot, just like the tax that you can never run away from, you have to pay. Don’t think I’m going to sit down and not pay for things, because I will.’
The model with ex, Alex Reid. After divorcing Andre after three and a half years of marriage, she married cage fighter Reid less than a year later in Las Vegas.
Some may disagree. Last week she was fined £880 for driving without a license or insurance in Northamptonshire in August last year. And she was recently visited by bailiffs who appeared to have taken a fleet of vehicles to repay a £250,000 debt she owes her third ex-husband, personal trainer Kieran Hayler.
It’s quite a fall for Brighton-born Price, who shot to fame at the age of 16 when she started working as a girl. She became famous almost overnight, quickly becoming the most sought-after fodder for the red top newspapers and being paid six-figure sums in exchange for endless interviews and photo shoots in OK! Magazine.
Her love life gave her plenty to talk about: she was seen leaving nightclubs every week and dated a string of famous men, including singer Dane Bowers and Manchester United footballer Dwight Yorke, with whom she had a son. , Harvey, who has the condition septo-optic dysplasia that makes him blind and autistic.
Then she met Andre on the set of I’m A Celebrity in 2004. A year later they married in a fairytale ceremony at Highclere Castle. The bride arrived in a carriage, wearing a pale pink meringue-style dress.
The couple had son Junior, now 18, followed by daughter Princess, 16.
Today, Junior, who looks a lot like his father, is said to have a “strained” relationship with his mother, while Princess and Price are close.
After divorcing Andre after three and a half years of marriage, she married cage fighter Reid less than a year later in Las Vegas. That marriage lasted just over a year.
Next up was Brazilian model Leandro Penna. Despite his English being quite scratchy, they got engaged but broke up before walking down the aisle.
There was then a brief affair with rugby star Danny Cipriani before she met personal trainer Hayler, whom she married in 2013. They had two children, Jett, 11, and Bunny, ten, before splitting in 2018.
Since then, Price has flitted between boyfriends and admits to self-medicating by using cocaine. Following this revelation in 2021, she checked into the Priory and has since insisted her drug use is behind her.
The 45-year-old with her son Harvey, who she had with ex-footballer Dwight Yorke
As well as filming her content for OnlyFans, Price spends her time wandering around her now rather run-down home in the small village of Dial Post in West Sussex. She is often seen in her pink Range Rover and regularly visits the cafe at the Old Barn garden center across the road from her home, where she enjoys a cup of tea and a cake.
Of course, it’s not just her grief over the loss of Andre that has set her on a course of self-destruction. Price has spoken openly about surviving childhood sexual abuse and has told how she was raped in a park at the age of seven.
When she was 12, she said a photographer took indecent photos of her as she began her modeling career.
Add to that her fear that her beloved mother Amy would die after being diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Fortunately, she has since been saved by a lung transplant.
But as Price’s life becomes more chaotic by the day, it has reached the point where those who care for her are beginning to fear the worst.
A source close to those who know Price told me: “Seeing Katie deteriorate like this is devastating.
‘She just doesn’t listen to anyone. She thinks she knows best and often seems unconcerned about things that are really, really serious. No matter how many times she is told to take care of things like paying her bills, she sticks her head in the sand and moves on.
‘It’s very easy to become very angry with her, but in fact her friends and family are deeply concerned for her well-being.
‘It has gotten to the point where some fear they could get a phone call at any time saying something terrible and tragic has happened. It’s heartbreaking.’
As I know, Price can be more vulnerable than brutal in real life. When she openly cried to me in August 2009, I was struck by how weak she was and, even more, how insecure she seemed: for example, she complained about a mark on her face that she had not covered with makeup. . It was the exact opposite of the brash, loud, and extremely confident woman I had met so many times under her previous guise as Jordan.
At the time, she truly believed she had hit rock bottom.
But almost fifteen years later, she has sunk to new depths.
As a friend puts it: ‘How much worse is it going to get? We are afraid to think.’