Katie Price tells how she was sexually harassed in front of her children

Katie Price recalled being sexually abused in front of her young children and revealed the lasting effects this trauma had on her mental health.

The 46-year-old mother of five describes in her latest autobiography the moment she was prepared to be shot in the face in South Africa and her pain at seeing two of her five children witness her being sexually assaulted in a horrific car attack during a trip in 2018.

Katie writes that the traumatic experience with her children Junior and Princess Andre, whom she has with her ex-husband Peter Andre, has “struck” her all to this day. Her accounts of abuse by the reality TV star led to her attempting suicide and being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

In the section of her new autobiography that focuses on the abduction, Katie tells readers how she was sexually abused three times over the course of her life: the first time by a stranger as a young child, the second time by a celebrity she does not name, and the third time while in South Africa in 2018 filming her reality TV show My Crazy Life for ITV, accompanied by a crew and two of her five children, Junior, then 13, and her eldest daughter Princess, then 11.

Katie recalls the traumatic experience and introduces readers to her boyfriend Neil Tawse, a man she has known since she was 15 and remains friends with to this day. “We never had sex and never had a one-night stand. I’ve lost count of how many people thought we would end up together, but we remain absolutely best friends and I owe my life to him,” Katie writes.

She further reveals that Neil is originally from South Africa, which is why she agreed to film her reality TV show so he could accompany her on the trip and show her a bit of his home country. During the trip, Katie, Junior, Princess, Neil and the director of the show went on a safari where everything was planned and everyone was happy with the route before departure.

After the safari, however, the director wanted to “take a longer, different route home.” Katie explains that there were only two cars: one car with the film and another with her, Junior and Princess in it while Neil drove. She further recalls that at one point she radioed the other car to tell them that Junior had to pee. “We were on a deserted road, so we just pulled over to the side of the road. Junior got out of the car and stood on an embankment when I got out too. Princess was behind me,” Katie recalls.

At this point, things took a terrifying turn. Katie recalls, “I heard Junior screaming, ‘Oh, Mommy, look here! Imagine if I jumped down there,’ and he pointed to the embankment he was standing on and I think I said something like, ‘Oh, Junior!’ The next thing I remember was shouting all around me. It was loud and it sounded like they were saying, ‘Casa, casa, get in the damn car, car…’ I couldn’t quite make it out but the shouts were so shrill and sudden.”

In the extract from Katie’s new autobiography, the Celebrity Big Brother winner said she remembers “standing there stunned” when she saw six men get out of a car. The mother-of-six admits it took a few minutes for her brain to comprehend what was happening before her protective instincts kicked in and she grabbed Junior and Princess and ran back to her own car.

“To be honest, my memory of the whole thing is a bit hazy. It happened so quickly, but at the time it seemed like it took forever,” Katie recalls. “It was surreal. I kept thinking, ‘Is this happening? Is this really happening? Am I dreaming?’ I could see two men, who I now know were hijackers, trying to get into the other car that the film crew was in, while the rest of them were standing around our car.”

She then writes how she called the film crew for help, but no one came to save her. She tells how she tried to calm Junior and Princess down as they screamed, but admits she was “absolutely terrified” and “thought we were all going to die.” The next few minutes became a “terrible blur” for Katie when one of the men managed to get into her car.

“Their hands were all over me, inside me, and in my pants. I kept saying, ‘Get down, get down! I’ve got nothing!’ But they took everything from me, all my jewelry and my watch,” Katie bravely tells readers as she recounts the horrific experience. She goes on to recount how some of the men tried to get into the back seat of the car.

She writes: “The door to Princess was unlocked and I knew I wasn’t going to let these men near my children. I was screaming like mad. The next thing I remember is trying to find the keys to start the car. Then I had the keys, but my hands were shaking so much I couldn’t put them in the ignition. And then it was too late.”

Katie tells how the kidnappers saw what she was doing and snatched the keys from her hand, causing her to fear the worst. She then grabbed a pillow and put it in front of her face while she waited for them to be shot. She tells readers how she wanted to protect her children and was terrified.

The star’s fears prompted Neil to confront the men. “He got out of the car and said to the men, ‘All right, come on. If you bloody well want it, take it!’ And he started beating them up,” Katie writes. “But there were so many of them. They started hitting Neil. It was horrible.”

She recalls how Neil managed to take the car keys from the men and return to the vehicle, “but then they hit him” – with what Katie believes was the butt of a gun. The reality TV star recalls the brutal altercation and how “suddenly there was blood everywhere” as Neil fell unconscious.

“I will never forget the look of fear on my children’s faces. When you see your own children living through a horror story and there’s nothing you can do about it, it haunts you,” writes Katie. “Then suddenly, as quickly as it all happened, there was complete silence. The men were gone and had taken the keys to both cars. After that, it was a bit like a zombie movie.”

In the extract published in the Daily Mail, Katie recalls how they got out of the cars in a state of shock before realising they had a chance to escape and get help. They tried to flag down a car but had no luck until a family finally stopped and she begged them for help. The family called the nearby police and Katie writes that she and her children were “finally safe”.

She then describes how they sat in the police car waiting for an ambulance to arrive to treat Neil’s injuries. “He had stitches in his eye and to this day he can’t see properly and has a scar. Neil put his life on the line for us and that made our friendship stronger than ever,” Katie writes.

The I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here star then recalls how some of the TV crew decided to fly back to the UK after the horrific incident, but she decided to carry on working. Katie writes how shocked she was by the decision at the time and that she would fly back home in a heartbeat.

She writes: “Why did I keep filming after the kidnapping and sexual assault? Why? Because I thought I was going to lose my contract and I had to work. The next adventure we agreed to was swimming with sharks. I mean, looking back now, swimming with damn sharks? What was I thinking!”

Katie concludes by explaining how she tried to block out everything that happened in South Africa, but eventually it became too much for her and she attempted suicide. She was eventually treated at the Priory for post-traumatic stress disorder. Six years after the abduction, Katie still finds it difficult to talk about the traumatic attack.

“But while it was horrific, it also showed me that a mother’s love knows no bounds,” she writes in her new book. “I was ready to give my life for my children as I sat in the car in front of them with a pillow over my face, preparing to hear the gunshot before the bullet penetrated my body. That never happened. I was given a second chance at life and I’m not going to waste it.”

*This Is Me: The High Life. The Dark Days. The FULL story by Katie Price will be published by John Blake on July 18th. © Katie Price 2024.

If you have been a victim of sexual assault, you can get help and resources at www.rapecrisis.org.uk or by calling the national helpline on 0808 802 9999.

Follow Mirror Celebs on Tick ​​​​Tock , Snapchat , Instagram , Þjórsárden , Facebook , Youtube And subjects