Читать книгу Katie v Peter - Emily Herbert - Страница 5

The end, when it came, was brutal. On 8 September 2009, at the High Court in London, divorce proceedings were under way. District Judge Bradley was working his way through a list of 21: second to last were the names of a couple who were cross-petitioning each other for a divorce on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour, under the names Price K v Andrea PJ – Peter Andre’s real name.

The names were read out, Judge Bradley pronounced decree nisi and said that the papers involved would not be made public as Peter’s lawyers had made an application to keep them private until a full hearing into whether they should be made public. The whole proceedings took just over a minute: Katie Price and Peter Andre were divorced. Their marriage had lasted just three years.

And so it was over for Britain’s most famous couple. But just what had gone wrong? After Pete’s shock decision to walk out on Katie the previous May, the couple had been increasingly at loggerheads, but matters escalated in previous weeks. Any chance that the duo might have had of keeping matters civilised had evaporated months previously, with a fierce war of words from the outset. All sorts of rumours swirled around as to the cause of the split and these were to intensify over the coming months as the two fought a public-relations battle to win the greatest support and neither seemed inclined to keep things amicable. In her hurt and rage, Katie lashed out at Pete and, while he attempted to keep cool, often he was provoked beyond endurance and so, in turn, lashed out himself. Matters did not improve when, over time, Katie was to form another relationship, while her ex-boyfriend Dwight Yorke also got roped into the mix. At times, it seemed, this was war.

The first really public battle was about who had been unfaithful to whom, although, if truth be told, it was probably neither of them. The marriage fell apart for very different reasons, but both had admitted to being jealous where the other was concerned, Katie had allowed herself to be photographed with other men and anyway, no one could quite believe that two such sought-after people would split up without anyone else being involved.

Pete, in particular, was incensed by any accusation that he had cheated on his famous wife. Back in early June, shortly after the decision to split was announced, he was adamant that he had been a good husband from the start. ‘I never once strayed from Kate,’ he told friends. ‘I was brought up to believe marriage was for life and this goes against everything my family and I stand for. Kate and I had our troubles like any other couple, but I never gave up until the very, very end. I would never walk away from the marriage without thinking about it long and hard; I didn’t just up and fly the nest. I believe marriage is for life and this has left me utterly devastated.’

It had, too, but then Katie was clearly badly affected as well. Right from the start, she put on a much tougher show than Peter, but a dramatic weight loss when she appeared on the Clothes Show Live in late May clearly illustrated that she was taking it much harder than she let on. Neither of them appeared able to talk to the other, however, with the result that both were clearly knocked for six about it all.

Katie continued to put a brave face on it, but her actions told a different story. She was partying hard, often causing chaos wherever she turned up. The reality was that she was indulging in extreme behaviour to try to forget all her troubles, but, still, it didn’t look good. A case in point was a Boyzone concert at Wembley Arena, during which she seemed totally out of control.

‘Jordan was an absolute car crash – it was really sad and quite disturbing to see her in that state,’ said one observer. ‘She had been drinking before and during the show. Then, when it got to the big finale, where the band are raised up over the crowd on cables, she stumbled into the sound mixing table and spilled her drink all over it. The band’s microphones cut out and the earpieces they wear to receive instructions from the show director started malfunctioning and making a really high-pitched screeching noise in their ears.

‘They had to pull them out – it was an absolute disaster, but Jordan carried on laughing and dancing around with her mates. Many of the fans in that area could clearly see what she was getting up to and, by the end of the gig, there was more people pointing at her than at the band. They looked amazed that she was behaving like that in full view of so many people. It was just sad to see her like that. She’s clearly very emotional and taking the split very badly … It’s a shame to see her like that.’

It was easy to mock, not least because Katie had spent much of her twenties falling out of nightclubs with a new man on her arm, but this time her behaviour seemed to signal a kind of desperation. When people are very hurt, they resort to extreme behaviour, including getting drunk in an effort to forget about their woes, and, clearly, this was what was happening here. Katie wasn’t happy: she was having a horrible time and doing whatever she could to numb the pain.

Other people recognised that, too. Boyzone’s Mikey Graham spoke for the rest of the band: ‘We’re obviously concerned for her and hope she gets through whatever troubles she has at the minute,’ he said. ‘We had no idea she was coming to the gig until she turned up just after it started.’

In many ways, it would have been better for her had she just admitted how hurt she felt and simply hid away, but that wasn’t Katie – her style was to get out there and show she was fighting, which is exactly what she did. It was Pete who admitted he was finding it very hard; even though he had left her, rather than vice versa, the couple had been married, after all, and had two children between them, Junior Savva Andreas and Princess Tiaamii Crystal Esther, as well as Katie’s son with footballer Dwight Yorke, Harvey, whom Pete treated as his own. In fact, the children grew to be as much a focus for fighting as anything else, with everything from the amount of time Pete got to spend with them to the appropriateness of introducing them to their parents’ new partners becoming a focal point of debate.

Pete, in particular, was emphatic that the children should not see their parents with other people while they were still legally married and was furious when his estranged wife soon began to take a different tack. He also continued to react angrily, when asked if he was seeing someone else. The answer was a firm ‘no’.

‘I can confirm the story in one magazine saying I’d grown close to three other women was total lies,’ he said. ‘Apparently, I’ve got one woman in Cyprus, another in Los Angeles and I’m involved with a member of staff. I can hold my head up high and say I’ve been 100 per cent faithful throughout my marriage, and still am. Any reports suggesting otherwise are hurtful and false.’

It was a stance he was to maintain, not least out of respect for his children, clearly concerned about the trio seeing new partners move too quickly into their parents’ lives.

Even at this early stage, several themes were beginning to emerge that would play out over and over again as the divorce began to roll through. The first was the PR battle between the two of them. Right from the start, Katie appeared out in public, over and over again, in ever-skimpier outfits, often drunk and, after not too long, with a man on her arm. Pete, on the other hand, was frequently seen with the children, taking them for days out and playing with them.

Gradually, the two began to be viewed as two totally different personas in the public eye: raunchy Katie and saintly Pete. This went beyond just how she appeared in the papers, though, as far as Katie was concerned: since meeting Pete, and especially since marrying him, she had transformed her public image from a glamour girl to a role model. A lot of her fans now were young girls, who bought her horse books, and whose mothers would be not be too pleased to see her leading an increasingly wild lifestyle. Soon, Katie’s advisers began to worry that the split would do her commercial harm.

Katie herself had also become concerned about it, albeit somewhat belatedly. She also began to display signs that she was a long way from being over Pete: having point-blank refused to see him, possibly as a tactic to make him see what he was missing, now she was reverting to the other extreme.

‘For weeks, Katie was being a complete cow to Pete, insisting he deal with her through her mother, Amy,’ said a friend. ‘Katie moaned that she relaunched Peter’s career when they got together – and now he is getting all the attention. She is worried fewer people are signing up for her internet fanclub – and thinks their fans have sided with Pete.’ In actual fact, it was a close-cut thing: fascination for Katie remained as strong as ever, but Pete was certainly getting the better press.

But the other theme that was emerging and would continue to do so, even after the divorce, was that Katie wanted Pete back. She might have been putting on a very brave face in public but it was he, totally exasperated by their rows, who was the one who walked out and finally decided to put an end to the marriage. Peter Andre, unlike some of Katie’s previous boyfriends, is a kind and thoughtful man, and, as is so often the case, Katie only realised what she’d lost when it was too late.

Pete was veering between anger and concern. On the one hand, he had to put up with his estranged wife being seen partying all over town, but on the other he could tell Katie was going off the rails, especially after one rather fun night out with Michelle Heaton. In private, too, Katie was urging him to reconsider, not realising that it really was too late.

‘He knew she would be upset but thought their marriage had run its natural course,’ said a friend. ‘He feels really bad about the whole situation as he cares for Katie deeply and hates to see her like this. All her desperate phone calls are really heartbreaking, but he’s determined to stay strong. Deep down, he knows that it’s not right to get back together, no matter how much it’s hurting Katie. In the long term, it’s better for both of them.’

And then, again, there were the children: Pete was an avowed family man and hated being away from them so much, on top of which there was the situation with Harvey. Pete might not have been his biological dad, but he was a father to him in every other way, and access was a grey area. ‘Kate and I have three beautiful children,’ said Pete, at one point. ‘And so, for them, I want to keep things as amicable as possible. I love spending time with the kids – I would see them 24/7 if I could, so I don’t want to get into a public slanging match with Kate. I just want us to be good parents.’

And, as if all that were not enough, both he and Katie were seeing their weight plummet. It was a very uneasy state of affairs.

At least they both had their work. In June, Pete flew to Macau, China, to perform at the International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA) and this helped to cheer him up. ‘The past four weeks have been the worst of my life,’ he told a reporter. ‘It was hell. No matter what happens, you never stop loving someone. Initially, I couldn’t even have thought about work – my head was everywhere. It still is everywhere. But it’s been a month now and I know I’ve got to start pulling myself together. The response I’ve had since being in China has been absolutely amazing. This, and the work I am doing now, is beginning to give me confidence again. Singing has given me something to focus on. I never expected the attention I’ve been getting and I am so glad this is happening. I’ve only been here a couple of days but it’s already turned out better than I ever hoped. Finally, I am beginning to smile again. It’s not like I’m a bundle of joy now, but it’s getting better. I’m even cracking terrible jokes!’

He further revealed that the pair had tried marriage counselling although that, too, hadn’t worked. Despite the shock caused when he walked out, the marriage had been in trouble for some time, and now it was far too late to try to piece it together again. ‘Yes, it was Pete who left Katie – but not [until] after he had done everything in his power to make the marriage work,’ said a friend of Katie. ‘Neither of them take divorce lightly and both wanted their relationship to work for the sake of the kids, if nothing else. So Pete persuaded Kate to give counselling a go once they started having frequent, more hostile rows. He really was willing to try anything, if it might help. Although they both went into it willingly, it was more of a Band-Aid gesture – a desperate final attempt to patch up the marriage and make it work. Pete was devastated that it wasn’t the solution.’

In truth, it was too little, too late.

Still, work continued to be a solace. Katie let it be known that she wanted to compete in the dressage and show-jumping categories in the 2012 Olympics, although how realistic that ambition was it was difficult to say. Behind the scenes, however, despite Pete’s wish to keep matters pleasant for the sake of the children, bitterness was growing. One of the many reasons given for the break-up of the marriage was Katie’s friendship with her married riding teacher Andrew Gould coupled with Pete’s jealousy, but Kate and Andrew were adamant that they were just good friends.

It was, however, her friendship with Andrew that had been a big factor in Pete walking out. A couple of weeks before the split, Katie had gone for a big night out with some of the horsey set, with whom she was socialising increasingly frequently, (another factor in the problems between Pete and herself), and was pictured laughing and enjoying herself. Gould was also in the group, which many people believed was the final straw as far as Pete was concerned.

Gould attempted to defuse the situation. ‘Kate, and I, and all her friends, have always socialised at shows and horse events,’ he said, when it became apparent that his name was about to be made public. ‘It was all harmless stuff and it has been blown out of proportion. We were just out socialising with friends, as we normally would. I don’t see it’s going to change. She’s obviously quite distressed about what’s going on. It’s a time [when] she needs to be alone with her family, so I will respect that. I would say Peter is jealous because we have a close link – as far as horses go. It’s just a horse thing.’

But it was also a sign that the two were growing apart. Pete made no bones about the fact that he was jealous where Katie was concerned, but this was more evidence that the couple were now moving in very different circles and they simply didn’t fit together any more. But this made them both angry and, inevitably, it also made them lash out.

Katie seemed to veer between grief and fury. Indeed, the depth of animosity was revealed by Sol Gilbert, a fitness instructor and friend who was helping her to build up her physique. ‘I’m not going to waste one more second on trying to get him back,’ Kate told him, and added, ‘I feel utterly humiliated – I’m getting caned every day in the papers. Usually stories like this die down, but this keeps on going every day – it’s getting bigger and bigger.’

And it was: public fascination with the two showed no signs of abating. But what Katie couldn’t understand was why the public seemed to be siding with Pete, and not her. Certainly, there was some feeling that she had pushed a basically decent man too far, but another problem was that Katie didn’t seem to realise that the kind of behaviour that had made her a celebrity in the first place was seen by many as inappropriate now that she had three young children, while Pete, the doting father, was gaining all the public support.

As ever, she continued to fight back, working out to get herself into even better shape and she could always confide in her friends. Sol was also able to provide more detail on what had gone wrong. ‘Pete rounded on Katie over her friendship with her riding instructor, Andrew Gould,’ he revealed. ‘It wasn’t true [that she was having an affair], and Katie pleaded with him to believe her – but Pete wouldn’t listen. She told me, “I begged him to stay to try to work things out for the sake of the children. I couldn’t understand why someone would just want to walk out and leave their family.”’

Clearly, she felt that the fact that she inhabited the world of the horsey set and Pete didn’t had caused increasing tension between them. ‘Pete didn’t like the fact I enjoyed myself riding and would always come back with a smile on my face,’ she told Sol. He would say, “Why are you so happy?” And he didn’t like me going out socialising and having fun. Then he confronted me about my relationship with Andrew and I told him I just loved riding, but he didn’t believe me.’

Of course, Katie was employing something of a selective memory here. In truth, the rows and tensions about any number of subjects had been simmering for months, but there was no doubt that she was absolutely shattered by what had gone on.

‘I spoke to Katie when she was in the Maldives just after the split,’ Sol continued. ‘It was evening and I was at home and she was in her villa. She was devastated. She said, “I can’t believe he walked out on me like that.”’

The final, televised row between the two (broadcast in the UK in May 2009) had centred on fame: which was the better known of the two? Although this had not been the issue that had finally forced them apart, it did bring the couple’s frequent rows out into the open. It was also one of the elements that had caused the public to feel very sympathetic towards Pete, but it was indicative of the kind of problems they had been experiencing and it certainly made for uncomfortable viewing.

The spat began when the duo were in a shop in the United States. Clearly, the shop assistant didn’t have a clue about either of them, but the two started to squabble about which of them was the more famous and matters very quickly got out of hand.

‘When someone knows who you are, and you come into a shop and you’re blatantly lying, you look a twat,’ Katie snarled, as the argument began to turn nasty.

‘Really? Shhh, Kate, zip it!’ returned Pete. He started speaking to the hapless shop assistant, who was looking as if he’d rather be anywhere but there. ‘So, have you heard of Kate?’ he asked.

‘I’m not sure,’ was his reply.

‘How do you feel now?’ demanded Pete, turning back to Katie. ‘How do you feel?’

‘You’re a fucking knob, I can’t stand you!’ said his wife.

‘Ahh, did I hurt your feelings?’ asked Pete. ‘Did he not know who you were?’

‘Oh, as if I’m bothered,’ responded Katie. ‘No one knows who you are; you’re an old fucking singer no one knows about!’

This was beginning to go too far.

‘You’ve got a real attitude problem,’ said Pete, who was looking furious.

‘Get over it, Pete. I want to go home!’ was her reply.

‘I’m so glad you guys are here to film this,’ said Pete to the film crew.

‘I’m so glad too, so you know what a knob you are!’ Katie replied.

‘You can see what kind of a stupid, miserable, arrogant cow she is,’ said Pete, and by this time it was becoming apparent that the row was really serious.

‘Arrogant, what, ’cos I’m talking to someone genuinely and you’re sitting there fucking lying? I can’t stand liars!’ Katie continued.

‘Really? You’ve got fucking issues,’ said Pete. ‘I can’t wait for you to watch this back and see how miserable you are.’

And now, alas, they finally got to the nub of it, which put Katie’s next comments to Sol into context.

‘I’m the one making money, Pete, so ’course I can have it how I want,’ said Katie.

‘What, don’t I make money?’ he demanded.

‘I don’t know, do you? Hurts, doesn’t it?’ Katie replied.

‘How fucking dare you talk to me like that! Think you’re gonna get away with it?’ Pete retaliated.

At this point, the two were forced to shut up.

It was this row about money, the point being that the person who had the higher profile was the one who earned more, which brought matters to a head and so it was hardly surprising, in the months that followed, that this continued to be an issue. Pete was deeply upset when some voices within the media suggested the split was just a publicity stunt (although by now it was becoming apparent that it was anything but) and now Katie seemed to think that he was using the parting to get publicity for himself, too.

‘Now I think he or his people are trying to exploit the situation for publicity,’ she told Sol. ‘He is trying to sensationalise it to launch his career. People don’t see Pete for what he really is – he is more competitive than he comes across. Pete could never accept the fact I was the star: he was always going to be in my shadow and he just couldn’t cope with it. He had a bit of success once, but he should have respected the fact that modelling as Jordan made the money.’

Perhaps it did, but no man wants to be made to feel second best. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered so much if Katie hadn’t rubbed his nose in it, but Pete had been a star in his own right back in the 1990s, and no one likes to feel like a has-been. And, while Katie was probably the bigger celebrity by the time they got together, as a couple they had risen to dizzying heights of fame that they would never have achieved on their own. They worked best together, which made it all the sadder that they could no longer continue as they had before.

According to Sol, matters were now so bad between the two of them that they had only spoken once since Pete walked out. Katie was also extremely bitter about what she saw as her husband’s attempts to relaunch his career.

‘He was unemotional and Katie had to keep herself under control,’ said Sol. ‘She has told me, “Why is he moving to Brighton when he is trying to revive his pop career? Why isn’t he moving to London? And, if it wasn’t for what I did to relaunch his career, he’d be looking for a bedsit somewhere!” Katie feels Brighton is her area, and this is going to only make things harder for them both to move on.’

Of course, the seaside town was also where the children lived and so it made perfect sense for Pete to want to be near by, but Katie seemed unable to see that. Instead, the bitterness just got worse. According to many reports, in her heart she still wanted Pete back, but he simply refused to play ball. And so, as the realisation began to dawn that this really was the end, Katie just got harsher and harsher.

‘I’m not going to hang on for him for one more second,’ she told Sol. ‘I want to get on with my career. I have tried and tried – I wish him luck with the future, but I’m moving forward now. I want to start working on the new calendar in a fortnight. I’m looking at beach locations in Spain and other countries around Europe. This time it’s going to be 100 per cent natural, no airbrushing. I don’t care if people ridicule me. This is how I make my living – and I don’t have to apologise for who I am: it’s what I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Pete has held me back and now I’m going to show him.’

Of course, Katie had not got to where she was without a certain degree of determination and now it really began to show. Determined to make a good public fist of her life, whatever she might be feeling privately, Katie organised a fourth birthday party for Junior, getting the children to dress up in fancy dress as their favourite cartoon characters.

‘I’m so over Pete,’ she told fellow guests. ‘Today has been all about moving on with my life. It’s been really hard, but I think I’m finally getting there. The party was all about me, my mates and the kids. Nothing else upsetting got in the way. It’s a chance for me to let my hair down after a very sad few weeks; it’s been the perfect medicine.’

There was a lot of speculation, however, as to how she was really coping and what was actually going on behind the scenes. But she certainly put on a good show at the party.

‘Katie was having a whale of a time and didn’t seem upset at all,’ revealed one of the guests. ‘She certainly wasn’t acting like a woman going through a messy divorce. In fact, she was cracking jokes and laughing throughout the day as if she didn’t have a care in the world.’

But that wasn’t all. Katie (and, shortly afterwards, Pete) had just signed up for a new reality-TV show, a project which she felt would help her to break out from under the shadow of coupledom, to start to reestablish herself on her own.

‘Peter doesn’t know anything about Katie’s deal, which she helped engineer herself,’ said a friend. ‘She didn’t want to be associated with Peter any more and ITV were more than happy to allow her a show of her own. Bosses want to schedule the shows at the same time, which will be interesting – especially which one gets the higher ratings!’

To say that Katie would want to trounce Peter is something of an understatement and this was an attitude that would only intensify as time wore on.

It seemed that nothing either of them did could be taken lightly any more. The day after Junior’s party, Pete took the children off on holiday to Cyprus, apparently livid that the day had turned into something of a drinking session for Katie and her mates. Drink had often been another source of contention between the couple – he hated Katie going out and getting drunk, and, of course, she’d been doing that very publicly since the split. The fact that she was obviously drowning her sorrows didn’t help much, either – whatever the reason, Pete disliked her getting out of control. And so another battle in the separation commenced and another argument reared its ugly head.

However, all that was as nothing compared to what was to follow. Pete and the children were off in Cyprus, leaving Katie free to do as she wished, and, while she might have felt the huge gap created by the absence of her estranged husband and the three children in her life, she wasn’t one to mope around. It simply wasn’t her style.

So, Pete had gone to Cyprus with the children. Well, let him! Katie, meanwhile, had plans of her own: she was going to spend a week in Ibiza with friends.