The curious case of Katie Price and the real reason women secretly admire her

In her latest spat with her ex-husband and daughter, Princess, the woman formerly known as Jordan is being painted as the pantomime villain yet again. So why, asks Zoë Beaty, does she have so many women in her corner quietly rooting for her?

Katie Price’s fame is the kind that feels almost purpose-built to cave in. To the British public, she was born “Jordan” among the pages of red tops in the late 1990s and has been appearing in headlines periodically since then – larger than life in more ways than one, similarly overexposed. Hers is celebrity as a contact sport, or car crash telly: fame that’s impossible to ignore and meant to be endured. And no one has endured it quite like Katie Price.

Over more than two decades, Price has remained a bewildering, magnetic and, curiously, a beloved figure, particularly among British women, despite (or, arguably, because of) her many public unravelings.

She has lived her life in the limelight, almost all of it captured on camera or in column inches. It’s been said before that her body is arguably the least intimate thing she’s exposed over the years and recent weeks have been no exception.

This time, she’s returned to headlines in characteristically tabloid form with a public spat between her and her ex-husband, Peter Andre, all tied in with an alleged feud between Price and their daughter, Princess. At just 18 years old, Princess is now the star of her own reality show on ITV2, The Princess Diaries, which, according to the ever-present rumour mill, Price was banned from appearing in due to an ongoing “rift”.

The details of the drama were all entirely predictable – Andre released a statement on Instagram claiming to “set the record straight” on their legal childcare agreement and Price’s “repeated lies”, 16 years after their split; Price responded with a wry post about “fake sinners who play the victim”, declaring, “I’m trying to be the best I can”.

At one point, another of her ex-boyfriends, cage fighter Alex Reid, got involved, too, posting a video of her counting cash in the middle of one of her (two) bankruptcies in 2020. Her team dismissed it as a “desperate attempt at attention”, while Price herself posted cryptic comments about betrayal and stress.

As a result of it all, she told her Instagram followers that, in the last few days, her PTSD and anxiety had been “triggered”. But, in the bigger story of Katie Price, all of that is simply background noise; the murmur of the Price media machine is still operating in full swing.

Once upon a time – or 17 years ago at least – Katie Price declared she wanted to be a billionaire, and “she might even make it”, national newspapers said. Back then, as she had consistently been through her life, she was in the middle of a reinvention. After her start as a topless model on Page 3 of The Sun, she worked out that being a product of the reality era was a decent way to make a lot of money and diversified from there.

And she really diversified. She released perfume, bed linen, the rumoured (though, from a quick search, unreleased) “Katie Price credit card”, hair straighteners, nine singles, lingerie, calendars, an entire range of equestrian clothing for girls, children’s books, teenage books and novels, one of which, Crystal, outsold the entire Booker shortlist. In 2006, she appeared in US Vogue’s “shape issue” at Anna Wintour’s request. For the ensuing photo shoot, she was dressed in Lanvin and shot by David Bailey.

Katie Price with her son Harvey, who was born with Prader-Willi syndrome (Channel 4)

From a cartoonish caricature of a male fantasy she seemed to pivot from object to operator, claiming she was exploiting the very system in place to exploit her. Arguably, with her overt sexuality, she was the earliest influence on the culture around OnlyFans that exists today, a capitalist venture not dissimilar to Bonnie Blue’s path (though a lot less extreme).

Price was a “rare victor” in the cut-throat world of glamour modelling, commentators have said over the years. “Katie Price was almost unique in that she came up through Page 3, and she found longevity in her career,” journalist and author Sarah Ditum wrote, adding: “That was what Page 3 was meant to be – the sell was always ‘this is an opportunity for working-class girls to make their way in the world and use their assets’. That was the fig leaf out of it. She was the only person who really achieved it and I found that compelling.”

Her world became a small empire and over the decades, every part of that empire – and the rest of her life – was offered up for scrutiny. That includes five marriages (and subsequent divorces), the bankruptcies, DUIs and reality shows, countless cosmetic procedures (she once claimed to have undergone more than 100 of them). She famously charmed the UK public and easily won the third series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! – where she met her then-husband, Andre – in 2004. The stint resulted in a string of TV deals, brand endorsements (and, of course, more tabloid headlines).

Perhaps her most resonant story, though, is of motherhood. Harvey, her eldest son, was born partially blind, autistic and with Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare genetic condition, in 2002. Since then, she has raised him largely as a single mother since his biological father, Dwight Yorke, wanted nothing to do with the family.

Peter Andre with Harvey and Price in 2004 (PA)

It was this that became the axis around which her public image transformed from tabloid punchline to tenacious matriarch – particularly when her 2021 BBC documentary, Katie Price: Harvey and Me, was released and received critical acclaim. It showed a rare side of Price – quieter, more human. She came across as committed and tender. The public responded with genuine warmth.

Still, for every compliment on her parenting – or honesty, or resilience, or at one point her business acumen – there’s criticism. Price is talked about, still, as the epitome of white trash on account of her preoccupation with looks and, for instance, the fact that she named her former nine-bedroom, West Sussex home “Mucky Mansion”. She’s been involved in controversy over how she treats her pets, has been banned from driving multiple times (including a two-year ban for drink-driving) and has a criminal conviction for breaching a restraining order.

Her most recent documentary about fertility struggles in trying to have a child with her partner, Carl Woods, was deemed “downright offensive” for its lack of depth and her parenting of her existing five children has also been subject to scrutiny, particularly around her boundaries. While she often takes on online trolls and discriminatory coverage with dignity, the contradiction remains: she wants to protect her family while also keeping them central to her “brand”, as it has always been.

In short, she’s hardly demure – in fact, one columnist remarked that Price “could start a fight in an empty house”. The thing is, that’s exactly her fascination, too.

Rumours of a ‘rift’ between Price and her eldest daughter, Princess, have dominated headlines (Getty)

Because, despite all of these perceived flaws and failings, Price never seems to be without a solid band of women entirely in her corner who, despite perhaps not even being fans of hers, feel a certain kind of sympathy. Why? Perhaps because of exactly what her type of fame has demanded: endurance.

Price’s hyper-public life might have been squeezed for every penny, but she has also been through an awful lot: controlling relationships, public shaming, postpartum depression, a near-fatal carjacking in 2018 and sexual assault during a family trip to South Africa. She’s been a dedicated mum, carer and defender of her disabled son. She’s warped herself to fit the male gaze, admitting that insecurity is what has driven her extensive pursuit of plastic surgery.

Some worry that she’s a woman who uses cosmetic surgery like self-harm and that, below the surface, there’s a woman trying to come to terms with some bigger unspoken trauma. But what sets Price apart – what’s key to her success and why women admire her – is that she refuses to be a victim in a world where victimhood is championed as smart social currency. Instead, she talks about her pain as a matter of fact and she’s never afraid to air opinions, however unfashionable they may be.

All of it demonstrates a resilience that’s not really about glamour but grit and, feasibly, womanhood, even when it’s really messed up. Yes, Katie Price is often a punchline and a caricature. But, whether we like to admit it or not, she is also a mirror – perhaps that’s why we can’t seem to look away.