From glamor model to bankrupt mom: How Katie Price became tabloid fodder but remained a doting mother throughout
After a year of rumors and back and forth, model Katie Price declared recently that she had indeed gone bankrupt. She is believed to be under a debt of more than £800,000 and could lose everything from her home in Sussex to the glam life she had been living. Her spendings have been estimated to be around £100,000 on plastic surgery, £450,000 on her three weddings, along with £1,500 on mani-pedis a week, among many, many other things.
Her name is a tabloid staple today and everything she says and does seems to make it to the news and not always under the best light. But KP wasn't always a gossip fodder that she is now.
Katie, a wide-eyed brunette with supermodel legs and an absolutely killer physique, found her first taste of fame in 1996. She used to go by the name Jordan then. She was splashed across The Sun and The Daily Star on their Page 3, where traditionally a topless model known as the "Page 3 girl" would be on. Absolutely unrecognizable to the Katie we see today, she was an instant hit after being discovered by Daily Star's photographer Jeany Savage.
From East Sussex, she was born to Amy and Ray Infield in 1978. Her father walked out on her mom and her when she was just four years old. Born Katrina Amy Alexandria Alexis Infield. she got her famous second name from her stepdad, Paul Price. In the height of her glory days, Katie has found her place on the pages of FHM, Playboy, Nuts, Loaded, Maxim and Esquire. She was Playboy's cover girl in September 2002.
She was earning well too — estimated to be £100,000-a-year deal with one publication and approximately £10,000 for a day's work. And she was known for her voluptuous surgically enhanced breasts. As she got popular, so did her obsession with plastic surgery and breast enhancements, going under the knife several times — sometimes to enlarge, other times to correct.
It was well. Her TV career launched with ITV's 'I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!' in 2004, where she also met her future husband, pop star Peter Andre. The hitmaker was at the height of his career too and the two sealed the deal just a year later. The marriage saw some scandalous moments — like the time she flashed her underwear with his name on it — and some seriously sad ones, including hostile fights, brutal statements and accusations and out-of-control antics soon after they split in 2009.
In July 2009, Price began dating MMA fighter and former 'Hollyoaks' actor Alex Reid and then went on to marry him in Las Vegas. After they split, she married Kieran Hayler in the Bahamas in 2013. They split up in 2018. From her relationships, she's had, five children. Harvey Price whose father is former footballer Dwight Yorke, Junior Savva Andreas Andre, Princess Tiaamii Crystal Esther Andre, Jett Riviera Hayler and Bunny Hayler.
Then there were the sex tapes — "toe jobs" — and the topless photoshoots while on vacation. There were also numerous shocking interviews, in one of which she claimed she was the proud owner of a diamond-encrusted buttplug.
She suffered from postnatal depression and has battled drug abuse when she was down in the dumps in it. But she's been a doting mother, especially to her son Harvey, who is disabled and she's done so, as a single mother. It's been her constant.
Yorke even refused to acknowledge the child as his, until a paternity test, post which is said to have been uninterested in being a part of his life. Things were harder than ever for the mother even when she was pregnant with Jett, when Kieran cheated on her with her two best friends, Jane Poutney and Chrissy Thomas in 2014 and their nanny.
Harvey is blind and has septo-optic dysplasia and is on the autistic spectrum. He gains weight easily because he suffers from Prader–Willi syndrome, and finds walking difficult. He's been subject to brutal bullying online, with one troll going as far as making a fake sex tape of himself having sex with the then 14-year-old Harvey.
She's been a relentless champion for her son, and there is no denying that. "I'd be superhuman if I hadn't shed tears over Harvey," she revealed in her book Reborn, "But if that ever happens I give myself a good talking to 'Pick yourself up Kate, be strong and get on with it.'"
She started a petition against online bullying after the fake sex tape and even fought to get it passed as a criminal offense. "This does not affect just high-profile people it affects everyone from every walk of life from young children, teenagers, people at work, husbands and wives. This abuse includes racism, homophobia, body shaming and a whole range of other hate speech," she said in the petition. It was later also debated on in the Parliament.
The bullying continues and earlier this month, she begged trolls once again to leave Harvey alone. "My Harvey is my life nobody will ever break our bond," she wrote on Instagram asking people to give them a break. She confirmed earlier this year that she was sending Harvey to a facility after the doctors suggested it would be "selfish" to keep him with her at home. It visibly broke her heart.
The difficult times and the scandals in her life have come and go, but she's never budged from her responsibilities for her children, even now as she stands to lose everything.