Katie Price has ‘no way back’ as she finally hits rock bottom after dodging jail for drink-driving and furious bust-up with ex Kieran Hayler’s lover
WHEN Katie Price stripped naked on a Thai beach last summer in a crass publicity stunt, friends of the star prayed the former model would sink no lower.
But now, just seven months on, her chaotic life has spiralled even more out of control.
Katie, 40, faces a police probe after allegedly abusing the new lover of her ex-husband Kieran Hayler in a school playground.
Legal and money woes, drug use and a car-crash love life have added to the turmoil.
One friend close to Katie — who turned her common touch into a business empire once worth £45million — fears the star has now “lost all sense of reality”.
She hit the bottle this week after her latest court appearance, boozing in a North London pub on Wednesday night before being bundled on all fours into a car and ferried home to her decaying mansion.
Earlier, police confirmed they had spoken to the ex-model for allegedly screaming: “Are you enjoying f***ing my husband?” at Michelle Pentecost as horrified youngsters looked on.
Days before, she was pictured struggling to sit upright at the end of another boozy night.
She raised a clenched fist in TRIUMPH outside Bexley Magistrates’ Court on Monday after being slapped with a £1,500 fine and three-month driving ban for being drunk in charge of a vehicle.
She quipped she thought she was facing two years behind bars after being found knickerless and twice the legal limit on the back seat of her pink Range Rover last October.
Her boyfriend was in the passenger seat when the car was found damaged at the roadside. They claimed the driver was a mystery third person who “ran off” after a row. Both refused to name him.
After a judge said she was neither “plausible” nor “credible”, she bragged to reporters: “I get my licence back on May 24, which means I can go car shopping.”
Yet just three months ago she struck a deal with the taxman to repay an outstanding £22,000 via instalments to escape bankruptcy.
But sources close to the pin-up say there is little hope of turning around her money troubles. Where she used to have the common touch, now she is just common.
Her once-popular telly show now airs on obscure digital channel Quest Red, while the days of lucrative product endorsements are long behind her.
Her looks have been ravaged by plastic surgery and her appearances on ITV’s Loose Women are now few and far between, her “brand” toxic. The constant making up and breaking up with toyboy lover Kris Boyson has become increasingly desperate.
But her most deluded bid for attention came last month, announcing on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show she plans to adopt a child from Africa after a chance meeting with a Nigerian orphanage employee at a nail salon.
Claiming she had already kicked off the process, Katie claimed it would be easy to adopt abroad as she seeks to “fill all 11 bedrooms” of her home.
She then said she had cancelled plans to travel to Nigeria after struggling to find childcare for two of her other children, Junior and Princess.
As one TV insider put it: “She’s performing to an empty room now. She’s finished on mainstream telly.”
Domestic pressures have also taken their toll on her.
Last month Katie said she had “no choice” but to put her eldest son Harvey — who is blind, autistic and suffers from the genetic disorder Prader-Willi syndrome — into a residential centre five days a week.
She said: “At night-time, he’s like a nightmare newborn. I don’t get any sleep.
“He comes in, goes in the kitchen and bangs about, goes in the kids’ room and goes ‘Boo!’ so they’re scared and come in my room.
“They get scared of him now. When he triggers off, he’s so big... when he’s in that rage, he’s in that rage. I love him so much — he’s my absolute life — but he’s just hard work now.”
She added: “I’ve never done respite care because I’d never want him to think I’m palming him off.
“But it’s come to a point where I have no choice.”
She’s performing to an empty room now. She’s finished on mainstream telly
TV source
Before Christmas, Katie admitted her two eldest kids had moved out to spend more time with their father, the singer Peter Andre.
Katie had agreed it was the best thing for them. She has reportedly asked other adults to collect her youngsters from school to avoid further confrontations.
Her mum Amy’s diagnosis with incurable lung condition has understandably added to Katie’s stress.
But those who know her believe her struggles have been made worse by her hard partying — as well as an apparent refusal to tackle her demons.
She is, as one pal says, her own worst enemy.
Last September she was caught on camera slumped on the floor of a Majorcan hotel room with two men, slurring her words as she gushed about her love of cocaine.
Two weeks later, she briefly checked into a rehab facility for post-traumatic stress disorder after years of drug binges. But the very next month she was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving.
She returned to rehab for what was meant to be a 28-day residential stay. But she quit the centre just 24 hours later and was soon out on the town again, partying hard to embarrassing effect.
On a recent trip to Kent’s Bluewater Shopping Centre with her brood, onlookers described “chaotic” scenes as Kris desperately tried to herd the youngsters back to their car. Katie stormed on ahead, stony-faced, meanwhile, barging past fellow shoppers.
Her trips to designer outlets remain as regular as ever, though she owes thousands to creditors.
And sources insist her home is in total disarray.
She is as relentless as ever. It’s totally self-destructive. She doesn’t listen to advice from anyone
Friend
With cracks in the windows, mould in the pool and animal waste on the floors — plus piles of hoarded junk strewn about — her Sussex mansion is proving impossible to shift, despite its size and desirable location.
Those who know her claim a sale would barely cover the sums mortgaged against it anyway.
Against a backdrop of mounting legal costs and wrangles with former lovers, she was even forced to put her menagerie of animals up for sale. But Katie insists she is still keen to “spoil” her children — and wore £500 Valentino trainers for her latest pub trip.
A pal said: “It’s as if she doesn’t understand the severity of what she’s facing.
“She is as relentless as ever. It’s totally self-destructive. She doesn’t listen to advice from anyone.”
The further she drops, the less likely a return to the top of the showbiz tree becomes.
But friends fear she may have even further to fall yet.
- Additional reporting: Sarah Packer
- GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL exclusive@the-sun.co.uk