Princess and Junior Andre have spoken publicly for the first time about the traumatic robbery they experienced in South Africa in 2018, revealing they believed they were going to die. The reality TV stars were in the country with their mother, Katie Price, when six armed men attacked their car and threatened them with guns.
At the time, Princess was ten and Junior was 12. The assailants stole their phones, laptops, cash and passports, and also began "touching up" their mum. In 2022, Katie disclosed that she was raped by the men and was "waiting to be shot" while trying to protect her children.
Different ways of coping with trauma
Junior has now said the trauma they experienced made him want to become more independent, while it made Princess want to "rely more on other people". Princess told the Mail: "I was scared to go anywhere. I always wanted people around me, because I'd never feel safe if they weren't there."
Junior added: "We were robbed, threatened with our lives, thinking we were going to die. That obviously made her scared to go out and be vulnerable. Whereas for me, I tried to fight it off by saying, 'I'm just going to face this and I'm going to be independent.'"
Katie Price's account of the attack
Katie and her children were in South Africa to film a reality show. Katie told the Mail in 2022 that she felt the attack would not have happened if she had had security with her. She said: "The experience when I was filming with ITV in South Africa, we had no security. If we had security they would have been able to deal with the six guys that jumped us, held me at gunpoint and raped me."
The star, now 48, also shared that she was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after the attack and became suicidal. She said: "I hit severe depression a couple of years ago, depression on top of PTSD. I was suicidal, didn't want to be here. Tried to kill myself." She said the attack became a catalyst for other mental health struggles and that she had to go to therapy. Katie also spent time at a rehab facility to deal with her PTSD.
Family reflections and lasting impact
On Loose Women, she added: "I can't even tell you how traumatic it was. We all thought we were going to die. I was holding the pillow up waiting to be shot to protect my children." In her 2023 book, Katie's mum, Amy, said she felt the attack was the start of the former glamour model's "downward spiral". She wrote: "It would be easy to pinpoint the beginning of Kate's downward spiral to the carjacking fiasco. A few months after the traumatic incident, one of Kate's friends rang me to say they had found her trying to kill herself."
If you've been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999.
