Katie Price has laid bare her life in her new Sky documentary Katie Price: Nothing To Hide, revealing bombshells including a fling with footballer Teddy Sheringham and harrowing details of a sexual assault she suffered as a seven-year-old child. The 48-year-old celebrity, currently married to Lee Andrews, reflects on her turbulent career and personal relationships in the four-part series.
Quest for Love and Childhood Trauma
Price admits her obsession with finding a soulmate has consumed her life. 'When I've been in love I've been blind. I've always needed a man,' she says. 'I've always been vulnerable and needy.' The documentary explores how her childhood was damaged by sexual abuse and her parents' divorce, and how her glamour career later propelled her to stardom.
Recalling the attack in a park when she was seven, Price describes how other children came to her aid. 'This boy and this girl walked past and they must have called the police,' she says. 'The police were talking – I don't know what they asked – but I remember they took my knickers. Through the years, there's a picture of abuse by men against me, taking advantage of me from a young age.' She adds that each trauma affected her, and she used to like dressing up and being looked at but not touched, as she felt in control.
Early Romances and Footballer Fling
One of Price's earliest romances was with semi-professional footballer Gary Bolingbroke. 'At first everyone knew Katie as Gary Bolingbroke's girlfriend, but as things progressed, it went the other way,' recalls Gary. 'I wasn't Gary Bolingbroke, I was Jordan's fella. I knew it wasn't going to last.' The relationship ended when Price started seeing footballer Teddy Sheringham in 1996. 'I'd always fancied Teddy Sheringham so I thought f*** it,' she recalls. 'I met Teddy at a hotel.' The next day it hit the front pages.
Relationship with Dane Bowers and Suicide Attempt
Price then fell for pop star Dane Bowers from Another Level. 'He might have been the tubby one, but looks aren't everything,' she says. 'He was quite arrogant but very attentive to me and when we kissed, it was amazing. I loved Dane. I did.' Dane agrees, 'We were in love, 100%.' However, he hated her modelling career. 'I wasn't equipped to deal with it,' he says. 'I told her I didn't want her to do topless any more. That was the undoing of us.' Price agreed to give up topless shoots, but when Dane released a chart-topping song with Victoria Beckham and shut her out of the promotional tour, she became jealous and stripped off for a topless calendar. Dane ended the romance, and Price was so heartbroken she attempted suicide. 'He was done with me,' she says. 'I cried so much and then he left the flat and I remember being on my own, devastated. Did I want to kill myself? No, but I thought by doing that he'd know how much I love him and I'd get him back. No, he still didn't want to know.'
Revenge with Dwight Yorke and Relationship with Gareth Gates
Price started dating Manchester United footballer Dwight Yorke in the hope that the high-profile romance would hurt her ex-boyfriend, who was a Manchester United fan. 'It wasn't love at all,' admits Price. 'It was massive revenge on Dane.' However, Dane wanted nothing to do with her. When Price fell pregnant with her eldest child Harvey, fathered by Dwight, he left her. Her subsequent romance was with Gareth Gates in 2002, when he was 17 and fresh from Pop Idol. Despite years of denial, Gates now concedes it was serious. 'I certainly did love her,' he admits. 'To be in love... I think I was too young. I think Katie was more vocal about that than I was. I certainly think she was in love with me. It was very quick, literally weeks, and she'd mentioned marriage and spending the rest of her life with me.' When their affair was revealed by the media, a terrified Gates denied everything, leaving Price heartbroken. She later gave an interview alleging their intimate life had cured his stammer, a detail she now regrets. 'That was a moment I wish I never did,' she confesses. 'I shouldn't have gone into detail about it, but I did.'
Marriage to Peter Andre and Therapy
Price's next relationship was with Peter Andre, whom she met on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! in 2004. 'Meeting Pete and being with Pete were the best times of my life without a doubt,' she declares. They married in 2005 and had two children, Junior and Princess, but Pete initiated divorce proceedings in September 2009. Recently, Price has undergone therapy and finds herself in a more optimistic frame of mind. She acknowledges her striking weight loss, saying she looks like a 'stick insect,' and admits she's never been able to value her appearance despite countless cosmetic operations. 'I've had therapy and done a lot of work to deal with traumatic situations,' she says. 'I wanted this documentary to be real and authentic, so some of the places they took me back to meant I had to put myself back into those situations. I found a lot of that difficult. My brain would go fuzzy because I didn't want to think about how I felt then. Believe it or not, there's still a very vulnerable, shy person in me.' Diagnosed with ADHD, Price says she is at last finding methods to control her rash behaviour. 'I've learned to control those impulsive tendencies to a degree, but you can't change who I am,' she says. 'I'm one of a kind.'
