For the most part Katie Price hasn’t been concerned at all about what people said about her and her tumultuous marriage to a con artist Lee Andrews.
Friends say she enjoys being the center of attention – and that she lives by Oscar Wilde’s maxim: There’s only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that’s not what is being talked about.
But that all changed recently – and very suddenly. I can reveal that Price heard from an anonymous person last month Facebook group that both she and those around her now fear could seriously damage her reputation.
The account, Chaos Corner, has threatened to release exclusive voice notes and messages that Katie allegedly made – which it is thought could be very embarrassing for her. Talk continues about several damning screenshots from a Zoom call Katie was on some time ago, which could raise even more very difficult questions.
The allegations revolve around how much Katie did or did not know about Lee’s defrauding of several women in fake investment schemes. Readers will recall that several women have come forward to accuse Lee, 43, of soliciting money from them under dodgy pretenses – with promised investment returns that never materialized.
The self-proclaimed ‘businessman’, who is also accused of lying about his PhD University of Cambridgeis currently being held Dubai‘s infamous Al Awir Prison, and is also the subject of investigations by Hertfordshire Police Interpol.
Today Katie, 48, shared the news that she is divorcing Lee, just eight months after they tied the knot in a surprise ceremony in Dubai. Katie claimed to The Sun that Lee had lied to her about owning £37 million worth of cryptocurrency, when in fact his account showed a balance of just £2.22.
She also claimed she told her inmate husband on WhatsApp: “I have been played and you are not who you say you are. Why did you lie to me?’
Several women have accused Lee Andrews (pictured with Katie Price) of soliciting money from them on dodgy pretenses – whose promised investments never materialized
Andrews, 43, is currently being held in Dubai’s infamous Al Awir Prison, and is also the subject of investigations by Hertfordshire Police and Interpol
As soon as the story broke, those who knew the couple rushed to call me and accused her of being stingy with the truth.
“Katie knew it was time to distance herself from Lee,” says a source who witnessed the tawdry romance from the start.
‘A PR bomb could drop any day, and she and those around her fear it won’t be good for her. Katie is a publicity expert: she’s been orchestrating her career since she was about 17, so she knew she had to get away from him.
‘In addition to Chaos Corner, there is talk of a Zoom video making the rounds where Katie was on the phone with Lee while he was doing a ‘deal’. The rumor is that she really doesn’t want to be associated as Lee’s wife if that comes out.
“So to say she ‘dumped’ him because he didn’t have enough money is a load of nonsense. She’d have to be stupid to think he was really rich. He may make some money by scamming other women, but he’s not a real businessman – and there’s one thing Katie isn’t: stupid.
‘She’s very concerned about things coming out that she doesn’t want to come to light. There’s a lot more going on than Katie is telling us. The thing is, she thinks we’re all stupid, and a lot of people have had enough of it.”
While the mother-of-five might like to think she can influence certain elements of the press and social media, she has been unable to shut down Chaos Corner, the anonymously run Facebook account that has entertained its followers with promises to reveal “the truth” about the ex-glamour model.
There are also fears that Lee’s former PR manager, Leighton Dewar of Leighton James Associates, is willing to share certain allegations about their relationship, adding yet another worry for the troubled star.
People in Katie’s circle have pointed it out to me: If she was so concerned about Lee’s finances, why didn’t she dump him in February when she learned he’d been scamming his ex-girlfriends?
There are even more gaping holes in Katie’s story. For example, why would she send Lee a WhatsApp while he was in prison, where prisoners are not allowed to have phones? Serving him with divorce papers while he’s in prison has also likely been far from easy.
As my source puts it bluntly, “Katie is just so full of s***.”
Katie, who first rose to fame as the ‘Page 3 girl’ in the mid-1990s, married Lee at the One and Only Royal Mirage hotel on Jumeirah Beach in Dubai on January 25 this year. The wedding came just days after he proposed following their first meeting on social media.
Lee was Katie’s fourth husband after her marriages to Peter Andre, Alex Reid and Kieran Hayler respectively. And while those romances have been constantly in the news, her relationship with Lee has generated by far the most public fascination — especially when he reportedly went “missing” in May.
Lee was due to be interviewed on ITV’s Good Morning Britain alongside Katie but never arrived in the country. The Daily Mail later revealed that Lee was in jail on fraud charges, but in an attempt to get as much press coverage as possible, Katie went public with the bizarre story that he had been ‘kidnapped’.
Sources tell me they suspect she may have made up that story just to sell it to the press — a tactic she has honed for nearly three decades. I’m told she made ‘tens of thousands of pounds’ from media deals during her eight-month marriage to Lee.
Speaking of money, I’m also told that Katie is secretly planning to cash in on her brief fourth marriage by making another documentary for Sky with veteran filmmaker Louis Theroux, who was behind her recent show Katie Price: Nothing to Hide.
Katie Price has revealed she will divorce Andrews after just eight months of marriage
Katie claimed to The Sun that Andrews had lied to her about owning £37 million worth of cryptocurrency, when in fact his account showed a balance of just £2.22.
Katie and her video producer Ben Algar are in talks with Mindhouse, the production company co-founded by Theroux, along with Lee’s exes Alana Percival and Crystal Janke – both of whom he scammed – to create a show similar to the hit Netflix series, the Tinder Swindler.
Katie’s continued worries mark a sad twist of fate for the woman adored by millions when she starred in ITV’s I’m A Celebrity in 2004, where she first met Andre. Her popularity led the network to commission the couple’s fly-on-the-wall shows, When Jordan Met Peter and Katie & Peter.
The Daily Mail approached Katie for comment.
“Katie is playing crazy motherfuckers left, right and centre,” says one of the many people baffled by her behavior since her most recent marriage.
‘She has created a huge web of different stories and events, it seems she is having trouble keeping track of what she has told people. It will all come crashing down quite spectacularly for her.”
