‘I’m simply getting a little bit of toast. Would you want some?” Katie Value asks.
Sure please, I say.
She seems to be at her nine-year-old son, Jett.
“D’you need some toast?”
“Nah,” he says.
“Naaaaah!” she repeats, gently mocking him.
She’s sporting trackie bottoms, a T-shirt and hardly any make-up. Individuals count on her to be glamorous, she says, however that is what she’s happiest in.
“D’you need blackberry jam on the toast? There are flies all over the place on this home.” She swats at them and apologises.
We’re at Mucky Mansion, her Sussex residence, a riot of pink kitsch, barking chihuahuas, caged gerbils, children’ paintings, Value mementoes and battle-hardened flies. “That’s one factor I hate about dwelling within the nation. Flies. You’d suppose I’m a chunk of shit the best way they fly round me.”
Value was not too long ago recognized with consideration deficit hyperactivity dysfunction (ADHD), and he or she talks continuous, juggling a number of conversations in a single breath. She passes me a mug of tea and the toast. Blimey, I say, you haven’t half slapped the jam on. “Don’t you prefer it that thick? The whole lot is fattening on this home!” The mug, from her heyday, reveals Value topless. How have you ever modified since then, I ask. She seems to be on the mug thoughtfully. “My areolas undoubtedly don’t appear to be that. They’re smaller. Surgically completed. That was one among my first boob jobs.”
Value, now 45, was one of many first celebs to permit cameras into her life, revealing every little thing – household dramas, enterprise offers, surgical enhancements and diminishments. In a manner, her physique was the least intimate factor she uncovered. I first interviewed her 15 years in the past, when she was on a roll. After beginning her profession on the Solar’s Web page 3 with the title Jordan, she reverted to her actual title and have become the superbrand Katie Value, promoting fragrance, make-up, garments. She was additionally a bestselling creator, married to her first husband, pop star Peter Andre. The headline to the interview was: “Who needs to be a billionaire? Katie Value does – and he or she may even make it.” She was price £30m on the time.
Right this moment, she is bankrupt, has been divorced 3 times and suffered a breakdown. She continues to be tabloid gold, albeit another way. Not often does a day go with out a new Value horror story. Based on many newspapers, she is at all-time low. However she can be nonetheless the Katie Value of outdated – powerful, heat, open, outrageous.
“What d’you consider all that Russell Model stuff?” she asks. “I’ve met Russell a number of instances. His bodyguard was mine.” She pauses. “I believed he was fairly a pleasant man, truly, fairly humorous. We have been caught in LAX airport with him as soon as. He had his girlfriend with him and I used to be with Pete. He was making an attempt to tug my stylist when his girlfriend was on the market standing together with her, so to me that claims rather a lot. The reality all the time comes out in the long run.”
Do you suppose it has all the time been simple for celebs to get away with unhealthy stuff? “Lots of people with standing get away with issues. Individuals cowl up for them and a load of individuals receives a commission off.” Value tells me she has been raped 3 times – as a seven-year-old in a park; by a celeb; and at gunpoint in South Africa when she was carjacked in 2018. “Once I was within the Priory my therapist mentioned: ‘Kate, we’ve by no means identified anybody to have so many traumatic occasions occur to them.’ And I’m nonetheless right here, coping.”
As we discuss, her youthful sister Sophie, with whom she now does a podcast referred to as The Katie Value Present, listens in on Zoom to ensure she behaves herself. Sophie couldn’t be extra completely different – quiet, wise, contained. Household has been the ballast in Value’s life. Her organic father, Ray, left residence when she was 4, however she stays near him in addition to to her mom, Amy, and stepfather, Paul.
Have been males exploitative when she began modelling? Sure and no, she says. “They handled me as a product.” She seems to be on the mug in my arms. “That wasn’t airbrushed. Males apart, for me it was an excellent time since you actually needed to work. You had targets. I needed to be on the quilt of this journal or that. The place are the targets now?” Right this moment, she fashions on subscription website OnlyFans. “I nonetheless do underwear stuff, however I don’t go utterly topless. I don’t must and I don’t wish to as a result of my children are older. However you may’t take the animal out of me in the best way I really like being in entrance of the digital camera. It’s what I’m good at, what I like. Sitting right here now, I’m not the very best wanting, however put me in entrance of a digital camera and I’ll wipe the shit with anybody.”
She will get extra animated. “And. That. Is. Confidence,” she says. Now she’s shouting. “And that may be a truth! Hahahahaha!” She swipes at a fly. “All these flies, I’m so sorry. I’ve simply removed a hornet’s nest on the market.”
Which journal cowl did you most wish to be on? “American Playboy. And I used to be.” How a lot did they pay you? “I believe it was 250 grand. I lived within the mansion for about six weeks. Hugh Hefner needed me to be his girlfriend however I wasn’t going to be having intercourse with him, in order that was a no-no. It was like my grandad.”
I’m gazing her tooth as she talks. They’re so white, I say. “Turkey,” she says immediately. How a lot? “Free. For an Instagram publish. I don’t advocate anybody has faux tooth.” Why? “I can’t eat a chocolate eclair now in case I pull one out.”
I’ve all the time preferred your honesty, I say. “Oh, right here we go!” she says, shouting and laughing. “He’s going to ask surgical procedure questions. How a lot surgical procedure have you ever had? I don’t know. What number of boob jobs? I don’t know. Will I be having extra surgical procedure? Sure. What? I don’t know. Does it make me really feel higher having surgical procedure? I’m older. I’m gonna do it. There you go, I answered that multi function!”
Truly, she says, she’s appalled by what women and younger ladies do to themselves today. “Aside from my boobs, I did my complete profession with out surgical procedure. I’m now 45 and if I wish to have my face completed, my nostril completed, I’ll. Now I’m as faux as you want, and I adore it. However I do really feel unhealthy for women of their early 20s and even youthful getting fillers. Once I see younger women they appear to be clones – puffy-faced, pucker-fish aliens. It’s actually unhappy.”
Value was solely 18 when she first had surgical procedure. “I believe 21 ought to be the minimal age for boob jobs. Again then, my mum was ‘don’t do it, don’t do it’ and it wasn’t as frequent. Now boob jobs are like shopping for a pair of sneakers.”
Do her surgical procedures replicate her mind-set? “You’re going to begin making an attempt to get in my head. Physique dysmorphia this, physique dysmorphia that. I might need physique dysmorphia. My mum thinks there’s a sample. If one thing occurs in my life, I’m going for surgical procedure. I’m good with anaesthetic – I’m by no means sick and I like being put to sleep. It’s such a pleasant feeling, and also you get up with one thing new. Generally I look within the mirror and suppose, ‘Oh my God, Kate, what have you ever completed?’ However, you already know what, I don’t have any filler in my face, solely my lips.”
The previous 5 years have been grim. In addition to the rape in South Africa and chapter, she has divorced her third husband, the actor Kieran Hayler. On the identical time, she has been citing her 5 kids, together with her oldest, Harvey, who’s severely disabled. All of it expressed itself in a whole breakdown. In 2021, she obtained a 16-week suspended sentence after flipping her automotive whereas underneath the affect of cocaine and alcohol. She was driving whereas disqualified and with out insurance coverage. On the time, she issued an announcement saying she was “extremely sorry” and “sincerely grateful no one was harm”. She averted jail by agreeing to go to the Priory.
How did she lose all her cash? “The ex-husbands have been on my case, all three of them. Then legal professionals. All of them needed cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Then clearly tax. While you’re having a breakdown and also you’re suicidal, you shut the world off. You don’t discuss to anybody, you don’t reply your cellphone, you don’t open your letters, and earlier than you already know it you’ll have a bailiff at your door. Then the work stops as a result of your head’s not there to do it. It’s all noise in your head. Payments coming in, payments coming in, you hear your husband’s dishonest on you, and all of it simply magnifies.” She’s speaking about Hayler. “You’re simply making an attempt to be there for the children, which I used to be. You’re making an attempt to maintain it collectively and all you wish to do is go underneath the covers and conceal. I used to be sick. Unwell. Unwell. Unwell. That’s why I went within the Priory.”
In the meantime, the press reported she was a drug addict. It wasn’t true, she says. “I self-medicated after I had the breakdown. Up till then I’d by no means been generally known as a drug taker. I’d have a drink, however I’m a light-weight. So sure, I went within the Priory, however it wasn’t for habit, regardless that the papers mentioned it was. It was for extreme PTSD.”
Sophie continues to be on Zoom, listening. Value seems to be at her. “I don’t know if I advised you I attempted to kill myself. It simply got here out after I was within the Priory, didn’t it?” Did Sophie suppose her sister would survive? Value solutions for her. “I dunno. At one level it was a bit dodge, wasn’t it, Soph?”
“Our major factor on the time was simply getting her assist,” Sophie says. How is Katie doing now? “I believe she’s in a constructive place. There are nonetheless days the place she has her little wobbles. However she’s nothing like she has been.”
You appear fairly constructive, contemplating every little thing, I say to Value. She is, she says – the press preserve reporting that she’s at an all-time low, however that was a few years in the past. Positive, the chapter is worrying, however she is aware of she’ll all the time be capable of earn a living, and he or she’ll ultimately be capable of pay again the £3.2m she owes. And cash is nothing in comparison with her sanity. “I’ve been within the shittest place you might think about. When you’ve hit all-time low, and the media has shafted you, and also you come by way of it, then it’s wonderful. And I’ve. The bomb’s exploded, I’ve survived it in some way, picked up the items, and I’m beginning my journey once more.”
One nook of the kitchen is roofed with playing cards and drawings from the children. There’s a message from 21-year-old Harvey alongside his image of a packet of Skips. “To Mummy, I really like this packet of Skips. Simply take the time and eat it very slowly. I hope you get pleasure from these Skips. Love from Harvey xxx.”
Value says all she asks for from the media is a little bit of equity. Positive, she’s completed loads of silly issues, however, she says, she’s additionally been a fantastic mum. She has made two deeply transferring documentaries about Harvey that don’t sugarcoat their struggles however present their profound love. He now lives in a particular college that she hopes will assist him reside independently, however he stays on the coronary heart of the household. “He nonetheless bangs his head, nonetheless smashes issues. He smashed the automotive window. It hasn’t been fastened but. There’s no telly in right here, as a result of he smashed it once more. And he’s simply smashed an iPad, so I’ve purchased one other one for him. That’s simply Harvey.”
He’s obsessive about trains, and not too long ago made the Guinness World Data for drawing the longest image of a practice – 21.3 metres. She couldn’t be extra proud. “One factor I really like about Harvey is that he doesn’t choose me. He simply loves me. He simply needs my love and cuddles.” His father, former footballer Dwight Yorke, has by no means proven any curiosity in having a relationship with Harvey, and Value nonetheless hopes that sooner or later he’ll. “The door is all the time open. I’d love the day I see Dwight and Harvey in entrance of one another. My mum nonetheless contacts his supervisor yearly, and asks does he wish to see Harvey for his birthday, and it’s all the time the identical – no.” She says Yorke doesn’t know what he’s lacking out on. “I simply need Dwight to know what a stunning younger man Harvey is. Harvey has a lot banter. He’s only a humorous little bastard. You by no means know what’s going to come back out of his mouth. He guidelines the roost when he’s residence.”
Value and Harvey have obtained surprising abuse on-line, main her to marketing campaign for Harvey’s Regulation, which might make such abuse an offence and open a register of offenders. Earlier this month the web security invoice was handed, together with a number of the measures she hoped for. Once more, she says, it might be good to get some credit score: “I believe I’ve had an affect on this going by way of, and can proceed to struggle for Harvey’s Regulation.”
Fortunately, she is aware of Mucky Mansion shouldn’t be underneath risk. “Individuals write about me as if I’ve not obtained a pot to piss in. My £2.5m home is protected. It’s mine – nobody can ever take it.” As for the specter of jail over her chapter, she says that doesn’t scare her. “If I might go to jail to clear all this, I’d, as a result of it’s driving me nuts.” In the meantime, she’s busy rebuilding her portfolio, taking her podcast with Sophie on the highway and growing two programmes for Channel 4.
She has overcome so many challenges, she says, and chapter is simply one other one. In the meantime, she is feeling extra constructive about life than in years. “There’s a fireplace in my stomach. Sure, I do endure psychological well being stuff; sure, I endure with PTSD; sure, I nonetheless have loads of pressures with issues occurring – however it’s all managed. I’ve obtained by way of it.” She sticks two fingers up. “So, up yours! Mainly, fuck you all! What’s it Arnie says? ‘I’ll be again.’ And Expensive is again. Don’t. You. Fear. About. That.”
The Katie Value Present Stay is on 7 November on the Lowry theatre, Salford.
