Gareth Gates has spoken out about his brief relationship with Katie Price, revealing he was 'shocked' when she publicly claimed they had slept together. The singer, now 41, was just 17 when he finished second on the first series of Pop Idol in early 2002, and months later he had a short-lived romance with Price, then known as model Jordan.
Price, 47, who is currently involved in the drama surrounding her missing husband Lee Andrews, quickly asserted that she had taken Gates' virginity. More than two decades on, Gates admitted he would 'never' have made such a public statement about someone regarding something so private. Speaking on the Great Company with Jamie Laing podcast, he said: 'I haven't ever spoken about relationships. I believe that relationships are between two people and I couldn't believe that somebody else was selling stories about very, very intimate details. I was shocked. But I learned a lot about the industry, and trust. I would never have done that to her or anybody else. It was a real learning curve for me.'
Gates, who has a daughter Missy, 17, with ex-wife Suzanne Mole, and was previously engaged to former Coronation Street actress Faye Brookes, is now in a relationship with West End star Allana Taylor. He insisted Price is a 'lovely girl' but said he had to quickly learn how to navigate trust early on in his showbiz career. He added: 'It was a shame because she's a really, really lovely girl but I couldn't believe that somebody could do that. I became very wary of trusting people after that because that was such a big thing, on a massive, massive scale. It was everywhere. It became the main thing that everyone wanted to know about. It was a shame I had to talk about it when I just wanted to be an artist. That was tough. It made me extremely wary.'
Reflecting on the situation, Gates concluded he was just 'so young' when everything with Price developed. He said: 'You become very careful about what you text people, what you say to people, and if you're a single man, I was a boy at the time - I wasn't even an adult - you become very wary about what you say to people because you're thinking 'They could sell this.' It was tough times, I was so young. This all happened before I was 18 even.'
Price has previously defended the fling, which occurred when she was pregnant. On the Anything Goes with James English podcast, she said: 'Yeah I took his virginity when I was six months pregnant.' When James shook her head, she hit back: 'Well you're asking me! What you looking at? Just because I was pregnant don't say I can't have a boyfriend.'
