Love, Lipstick and Lies (17 page)

The contestants were told to come dressed to impress but their first challenge, also dreamed up by
me, was to strip down to their underwear. And there was more … The girls had to take off all their make up and take out their hair extensions; the boys had to strip down to a pair of pink swimming trunks and wash out any hair product. I told them that I wanted to see the blank canvas I was going to be working with. I needed to see if they had the confidence to make it as a successful model – where you could be asked to adopt any number of looks that are out of your comfort zone. It might have seemed cruel but I honestly wasn’t trying to humiliate them or make them feel bad about themselves.

I was amazed by how different the girls looked in their natural state. They had all looked stunning in make up but some of them were absolute piglets without their slap on, completely unrecognisable. Anyone can look good with the right make up, but to succeed as a model you have to look good without it. I’m not saying that my looks are perfect, not by a long way, I’m just saying I know what you need to look for. The other thing that shocked me was how many women don’t match their underwear! Take the shame, ladies! I
always
match mine.

From Bootcamp we selected twelve contestants and they moved into a luxury house and were faced with more tasks, from photo-shoots, to marketing, to coming up with a viral video campaign to promote themselves. As I said, right from the start Amy and Rylan stood out. But I always felt that there was a problem with Amy’s attitude. The other contestants didn’t warm to her and
there was often conflict in group tasks. I sometimes felt that she was a game player. When a focus group we’d set up were shown a video that each of the five had made about themselves, she didn’t score well with it at all. In contrast they absolutely loved Rylan, who has the gift of the gab and such a warm personality. He’s a great role model for anyone who wants to be different. I was convinced that Rylan should win the series.

And then it was the final, with just Rylan and Amy fighting it out. Their last task was to hold their own press launch for the perfume brand that they had designed. They had to come up with their look and choreograph their entrance, along with a group of models, in front of the waiting press pack. It was a really tough challenge. Then they had to get up on-stage, give a presentation about their perfume and take questions from the press about themselves. A final chance for them to shine. They were both impressive in different ways, but for me Rylan had the edge.

Back-stage I insisted that I thought he should win, and everyone else, the production team and the other judges, told me, ‘But, Kate, the press won’t write about him. Girls sell. The press will want to write about Amy … she’s sexy and she’s different. Amy has to win.’ I know that people will say, yeah, yeah, but it is true.

‘I admit that she’s incredible-looking, but I still think it should be Rylan,’ I argued. But the others had their way. Even when I went on-stage to announce that Amy was the winner I so wanted to say that it was Rylan,
but whoever won would have to work with my team and, though everyone in it loved Rylan and thought he would have a great future, they felt that Amy fitted the criteria of what we had set out to find.

* * *

Winning the show meant Amy would be managed by Black Sheep, which is run by my brother and my manager, Andrew. The whole point of the show was to find someone in whom my team would invest considerable effort over a period of time to build into a ‘brand’. It was not about quick wins, and for that type of investment the contract needed to be exclusive (as everyone knew in advance). Amy also won a luxury holiday and the use of a designer Range Rover for a year. But very quickly it all unravelled. She was too young to insure the car herself and my team had to look for alternatives for her. It wasn’t anyone being difficult, it’s standard practice in these situations. My friend Michelle Heaton said it was exactly the same for her and her group Liberty X when they were given cars.

But for me, it was Amy’s attitude that was really the problem. It seemed that she expected to have overnight success and did not want to put in long-term effort to make the project a success. There was a delay with the show being broadcast and that meant we could not start working with her or it would compromise the surprise element. Amy would continually call the office, asking, ‘Why aren’t I doing this or that?’ but our hands were
tied. There were other issues too that my team had to deal with that I won’t go into here, but the main problem was that Amy would not sign an exclusive contract with Black Sheep. That was her choice and I have no problem with it, but obviously none of my team wanted to put in the hours that would be required to build her profile in those circumstances. To be honest, by this time I think everyone was a little relieved that it would not be a long-lasting association.

I tried to explain that you don’t get overnight success unless it’s from something like
The X Factor
. But that kind of fame can be hard to cope with; have it all too soon and it can go to your head, and then it’s over for you very quickly. In my experience it’s better to build up to success gradually, so you become used to it and can deal with it and have a long-term career. But that didn’t seem to sink in with Amy. Her boyfriend would even go and see Andrew and tell him that she should be as famous as Cheryl Cole by now, and why wasn’t she? Talk about deluded.

Personally, I think she got too big for her boots, too soon. She is an attractive girl but the world is full of them. Apparently she did a radio interview and a story on me. I didn’t hear it or read it. It did not surprise me though.

And now look at Rylan and how successful he is. I felt like saying ‘Up yours!’ to everyone who told me to choose Amy over him because I knew I was right at the time. I’m still good friends with Rylan and he came to my
wedding to Kieran. I told him that I was very pleased it had all worked out for him, and that if he had signed up with us he might not have got the chance to go on
The X Factor
. He brushed himself down after being on my show and came up fighting again. That is what it really takes to be successful: guts, self-belief, determination, and plain old hard work. You cannot manage without those qualities.

I was thrilled he did so well on
X Factor
and that he went on to win
Celebrity Big Brother
. He is such a genuinely warm, gentle person and deserves all the fame he’s won. He’s worked hard for it and it’s what he really wants. I think he’ll do very well in the industry; personality gets you a long way in this business.

Overall I was really pleased with the way the show went, but disappointed that Sky Living didn’t seem to want to give it as much promotion as it deserved.

I’d love to do another series of
Signed by Katie Price
, either here or abroad, as well as some other formatted shows. I’ve got so many ideas!

Throughout my career I’ve noticed that the press likes to have a pop at me, and sometimes it has felt as if I get more than my fair share of adverse coverage – more so than other celebrities anyway. Some of it probably stems from me always being myself, and not putting on a polished act. I accept that when you are in the public eye, the press are going to write about you and it’s a two-way thing; if they hadn’t, I wouldn’t have become famous. But while I can take criticism for things I’ve actually done, it’s when lies are printed that it really eats away at me. People read those stories and believe they are true, and end up forming a bad opinion of me. After the break-up of my first marriage, for instance, the stories were horrendous. I was portrayed as a bad mother, as out of control, it was said that my businesses
and books were failing, and that I was desperate to get back with Pete. It felt as if sections of the press were out to destroy me. It was tough for me to be taken seriously for a while because everyone thought I’d gone off the rails when Pete left, and I was portrayed as someone whose career was over.

The constant battering really got to me and there were times when I felt very low and depressed. I took the decision at the end of 2009 to withdraw from doing magazine interviews and to step out of the public eye for a while. It was a risk but I had to do it. I needed to get on with my life without the constant criticism of every single thing I did. I would still do my press calls and interviews when I had a new book, TV show or product to launch, but that was it. I was sick of the press twisting what I said, sick of the lies that were printed about me. It didn’t seem to matter how many times I pointed out that something wasn’t true, no one seemed to want to believe me. I felt that some of the tabloids and magazines had treated me like shit; they showed no respect for my feelings. I lost all faith in them. In fact, it felt as if they didn’t even think I was a human being with feelings at all. It felt as if no one was giving me any room to breathe, no one would give me a chance. It was a horrible, horrible time.

One of the worst experiences I had was when I tried to stick up for Alex early on in our relationship. He was in a film that the press claimed glorified rape. In defending him, I said that he would not make such a film because
he knew that, early in my glamour career, I had been raped by a celebrity and what a devastating experience this had been for me. Of course I was naïve to think that the press would not want to know more and I was put under intense pressure to name my attacker, but I will never do that. For some that means they feel they can pour scorn on my story and basically accuse me of making it up. I was vilified by sections of the press, and it was a real low point in my life to be accused of making use of a terrible thing like that in order to drum up publicity for myself – that simply was not true.

Victims of sexual abuse deal with it in different ways. My way of dealing with what happened to me was to lock it away and speak to very few people about the details. I believe it has driven me on to make a success of myself. I made a personal decision that I was not going to report the attack to the police – partly because I did not think I would be believed, and partly because I did not want to have to relive the experience over and over throughout a police investigation and trial. My way of dealing with events would not be right for everyone and I understand the counter-arguments, but it was my choice. Having made that decision years ago, I feel it would be wrong for me to name my attacker now. I believe that is the victim’s choice.

However, in a way my fears were coming true. I was being publicly doubted and accused of fabricating the incident. In defending myself against these accusations I said that Pete knew this had happened to me. He then
denied this, saying we had never discussed it. This was not true. I will never understand why he did that when it led to me being castigated and belittled all over again. Made me a victim again. Given what I now know, this is a huge issue between us … but that is for later!

* * *

Things were going from bad to worse with the press. In 2011 my then management team had the idea of inviting a group of journalists over to my house for dinner, saying to me, ‘Come on, let’s get them on side.’ But I felt I didn’t need to get them ‘on side’ because there was nothing bad about me for them to write about! It was the press who kept choosing to make things up. But I went ahead and invited the journalists round, and gave them the full Pricey hospitality: more food than they could possibly eat, plus wine and chocolates. I was completely myself, didn’t dress up. In fact, if I remember correctly, I wore my trackies and had my hair in rollers. We all got on well and had a laugh. But it didn’t make a blind bit of difference to the coverage I continued to receive in the press.

I had tried so hard to stay strong and put on a brave face, no matter what was written or said about me. I had this terrible anxiety that if I showed any weakness, and had a breakdown, my children might be taken away from me. But enough was enough. I had to take a stand against those parts of the press that had written such lies about me. I instructed my legal team to start building up
a case against those publications that had blatantly done so. This was not something I did lightly because I knew that some in the press would simply redouble their efforts to harm me, but I had taken as much as I could. I wanted to scream out loud that I could take criticism for the things I actually did, but making things up and then criticising me for those things was just wrong.

If I listed all of them there would probably be enough to fill another book. But here are a few examples …

First that
Daily Star
story that Princess had been covered in a ‘bizarre’ set of bruises. They later admitted they were wrong.

There had been a front-page story in
Star
magazine saying that I wanted Pete to dump his then girlfriend Elen Rivas, that I was obsessed with looking at pictures of her on the internet and upset by seeing photographs of her with Pete. As it was front-page, of course my picture was splashed all over and the coverage made me look like a mad and embittered woman. And it was entirely made up! When we took legal action the magazine accepted the story was false and printed an apology.

In another example, the
Daily Star
published an article which claimed that I was involving my son Junior in a violent sport and that this was of deep concern to my ex-husband. This time I was being made to look like a bad mother. Again, completely untrue. The paper had to admit their story was made up and that I had simply taken Junior to a non-contact fun fitness class.

There were plenty more ridiculous made-up stories as well. Take this one, again from
Star
magazine which printed a story that I had a bizarre obsession with the Kardashians and had been bombarding them with messages. And that I had begged Living TV to consider a reality show based on the same premise as
Keeping Up with the Kardashians
. And that I wanted two more daughters who could star in a Kardashian-style reality show with my daughter Princess! Okay, you might think that’s funny, but again it makes me look like a mad, obsessed woman and a bad mother. To make matters worse, this magazine published a reader’s letter (in its ‘star’ letter spot) the following week saying how funny the article was – only that letter was not written by a reader at all but by a member of the magazine staff! And yet again, after we took legal action, they had to apologise and admit the claims were untrue.