Reality star Katie Price has denied being “angry and vengeful” towards her ex-husband, who is on trial accused of raping a 13-year-old girl, a court heard.
Giving evidence from behind a screen, the television personality denied she held any animosity towards 39-year-old Kieran Hayler after he had an affair with their nanny.
Jurors heard Ms Price had chosen the nanny because she “wasn’t very attractive” and a “little bit overweight”, in the hope that Hayler would not cheat on her.
But despite her intervention, Ms Price said her ex-husband had a 10-month affair with the nanny.
Court exchange over alleged vendetta
At Lewes Crown Court on Tuesday Hayler’s lawyer, Arlette Piercy, put it to Ms Price: “You are angry and vengeful towards the defendant Kieran Hayler, you have evidenced a vendetta against him over a number of years.”
Ms Price responded: “That is not true.”
When challenged by Ms Piercy on her view of her ex-husband, Ms Price said: “I don’t have any venom against Kieran, it was amicable when we split.”
Ms Piercy then asked Ms Price: “You chose the nanny. It’s accepted at a later stage he had an affair with her.
“You chose her because she wasn’t very attractive and she was a little bit overweight.”
Ms Price replied: “Absolutely, there was a reason for that so he wouldn’t cheat on me again but he did.”
Allegations and messages
Hayler is accused of three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in West Sussex in 2016.
The court previously heard that Ms Price messaged the teenage girl allegedly raped by her then-husband saying she had heard that Hayler and the girl had kissed and he had “tried it on” with her, adding later: “I will make you a little star.”
Asked in cross-examination by Ms Piercy about her use on occasion of the phrase “little star”, she said: “That’s a figure of speech.”
Asked what did she mean, she added: “I don’t know, when she was 13 there’s no agenda or nothing behind it.
“It’s just a figure of speech.”
Later in her court evidence when asked about the full message exchange, she said she cannot remember them and this is the “first time I’ve seen these”.
She added they are “quite triggering because he was doing all this behind my back” and that she had “blocked” them out through therapy.
She had told the court she had gone to the Priory, referred to as a rehabilitation centre, “because of the damage he’d done to me with (the complainant)”.
Shock and breakdown
On Monday, she told the court she was “really shocked” by the allegations.
Ms Price told jurors: “I was shocked… like really shocked. It was a different kettle of fish, it’s a child.”
She told the court she confronted her husband at the time, asking if he had “done stuff” with the teenage girl.
Asked by prosecutor Ryan Richter what his response was, Ms Price said: “I can’t remember his response but his response all the time was ‘no I hadn’t’.”
She said she did not speak to the girl about the allegations face to face, and was asked whether she asked her to report it to the police.
“I was going through it myself. I was having a breakdown at that point,” she said.
“I had to go in the Priory.”
Hayler denies the charges and suggests his ex-wife had “launched a campaign” against him when their marriage ended and the allegations form part of this, the court has heard.
He was married to Ms Price at the time of the allegations, before the couple’s relationship broke down in 2018 and they divorced in 2021.
The alleged victim is not part of Hayler or Ms Price’s extended families.
The trial continues.
