By
Katie Hind For The Daily Mail
Published: 12:08, 2 May 2024 |
For years, it was a matter of bemusement for parents at the school gates.
If
Katie Price and
Peter Andre’s children arrived on time, it was a clue they were staying with their dad. If they were late, they were with their mum.
‘It was like a guessing game,’ says one former parent at the East Sussex school. ‘It became a bit of a running joke and was much discussed in the playground. When they arrived with Pete it was calm, when it was Katie it was chaos and there was often an entourage.’
Today, siblings Junior, 18, and Princess, 16, are grown up and launching showbusiness careers of their own. This week it was revealed that Junior who is pursuing a singing career, is dating an influencer named Jasmine Orr, 23. I’m told Andre has met her and ‘approves’.
In the coming weeks Princess, who made her modelling debut in January with Pretty Little Thing after signing a four-figure deal with the brand, will be announcing what has been described as a ‘huge new deal’. Other brands are vying to work with her thanks to her 700,000-strong social media following.
View attachment 2910528
Katie Price and Peter Andre with Junior and Princess in Los Angeles in 2009
Both appear to have reached their teenage years relatively unscathed, despite their mum and dad’s very public divorce in 2010, the bitter fallout and the subsequent high-profile relationships and personal turmoil of Price.
Glamour model Price and singer Andre, who catapulted to fame with his washboard abs in the video for his hit single Mysterious Girl in 1995 were, in the Noughties, Britain’s most famous reality couple. But after their split, their lives took very different paths.
Andre has taken a step back from the limelight and has been happily married since 2015.
Price, 45 – who is holidaying in Cyprus after missing her latest High Court hearing following her second bankruptcy – this week unveiled a new tattoo, matching with her new boyfriend, 31-year-old reality TV star JJ Slater from Married At First Sight.
View attachment 2910529
Kate Price on ITV's This Morning with Princess and Junior in 2017
View attachment 2910530
Peter with Junior and Princess at the Pride of Britain Awards in 2022
And it is Andre that friends credit for the fact Princess and Junior are said to be ‘very well adjusted’ teenagers.
For Price and Andre have approached parenting from totally opposite ends of the spectrum. And this, the Mail can reveal, has led to numerous clashes between the pair.
In fact, relations are so bad that they are not even able to speak directly to one another, instead using lawyers to make arrangements and decisions over their children.
‘It has been a thing of nightmares at times,’ says one friend of the couple.
‘Katie doesn’t have the same respect for manners and decency as Peter. He is a traditional family man who wants his children well turned out in every aspect.’
View attachment 2910531
Peter Andre and Junior pose on the blue carpet at the Silver clef Awards in London in 2023
After meeting on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity back in 2004, the couple began dating and a year later Junior arrived. Three months after he was born, in September 2005, they wed at Highclere Castle in Hampshire – where Downton Abbey was filmed – with Price arriving in a horse-drawn carriage, dressed in a light pink ‘meringue-style’ gown.
It was reality TV’s answer to a royal wedding. In fact, their ‘love story’ was such a ‘cultural phenomenon’ that they were paid more than £1million for the rights by OK! magazine and that edition remains one of their highest selling ever.
Then in June 2007, Price gave birth to Princess. But within two years, Price and Andre announced they had separated.
At the time, Price told me that her life was ‘over’ but it wasn’t long before she was dating cage fighter Alex Reid. Andre remained single, stating he wanted to provide a stable home for his children. Junior was starting school and Andre was adamant that both of his children got a good education.
View attachment 2910532
The couple post at the launch of Katie And Peter: The Next Chapter Stateside in 2009
Andre encouraged Junior – who was a promising singer – to apply to the BRIT school in London, the leading performing and creative arts school in the UK.
Katie Price, meanwhile, faced some personal challenges with a succession of failed relationships and numerous convictions for driving offences including a 16-week suspended jail sentence for drink-driving. She has been declared bankrupt twice and reportedly faces losing her home – dubbed her ‘Mucky Mansion’ because of its dilapidated state – in the village of Dial Post in West Sussex because of a £750,000 tax bill. Price – who has had 16 boob jobs – films for adult video website OnlyFans to make a living.
‘There was of course a fear that Junior and Princess could go off the rails,’ a friend who has known the family for many years told me.
‘They have seen Katie live an entirely wild life ever since they were toddlers so Pete has been adamant that they get an education under their belt that cannot ever be taken from them.’
View attachment 2910533
Katie Price and Peter Andre with Junior as a baby at a movie premiere in 2006
Meanwhile, Peter Andre has distanced himself from the reality TV lifestyle. Before a concert in 2010 at the Plymouth Pavilions, he was treated for kidney stones by Dr Ruaraidh MacDonagh – who introduced him to his medical student daughter Emily.
‘Emily and I realised we had feelings for each other and two years after meeting at Plymouth Pavilions, we were married,’ Andre has said.
Junior and Princess share Andre’s house with Emily, now an NHS doctor, and their three half siblings, Amelia, ten, Theo, seven, and a newborn daughter named Arabella Rose.
The slogan Chez Andre, is, I’m told, ‘Boundaries’. ‘Princess’s boyfriends aren’t allowed to stay around Pete’s,’ says a friend of the singer. ‘Whereas Katie lets them at hers when she is there.
View attachment 2910534
Junior Andre and his sister Princess at the PrettyLittleThing Christmas party in 2023
‘Pete provides stability. It’s traditional family values, work ethic, treat people how you want to be treated.
‘It’s about family time, family traditions and memories. There are BBQs in the summer, roast dinners on a Sunday. At Katie’s, it’s a bit more of a KFC culture.’
Those who know Junior Andre well say that he is a ‘credit’ to his parents. They add that he is ‘loyal’ to his mother but is aware that how she lives her life isn’t ‘particularly helpful’ to him or his younger sister.
At an industry party last year, a mutual friend of Andre told me how her teenage daughter wanted her picture taken with Junior. He was happy to oblige. But unlike many teenage boys, Junior showed courtesy and consideration for the 15-year-old girl, asking: ‘Is it OK if I put my arm around you?’
View attachment 2910535
Brands are desperate to work with Princess thanks to her 700,000-strong social media following
View attachment 2910536
Peter and wife Emily MacDonagh with Junior and Princess in London in 2018
‘That was Pete,’ says the pal. ‘He has been doing his very best to instil respect towards others. He was such a polite young boy.’
While Price has been rightly praised for her dedication to her severely disabled son Harvey, 21, the product of a short-lived romance with ex-football player Dwight Yorke, it is possible she allows Junior and Princess more leeway than their dad.
View attachment 2910537
Katie Price models her range of horseriding clothes, KP Equestrian, in London in 2009
Last September, Princess was pictured holding a shot glass for the camera at a showbusiness party in Liverpool with Price and her then on-off boyfriend Carl Woods. Though ‘insiders’ close to Price insisted that Princess had ordered only a non-alcoholic Fanta, Andre was furious.
‘Princess is too young to drink and a photo like that which ended up all over social media was upsetting for him,’ says a source close to Andre. ‘He worries about Princess, she is a teenage girl growing up in the public eye, with a mum who loves attention. You can’t blame him.’
So, as she prepares to announce her new deal, will the pitfalls of fame that have tripped up Katie Price also befall her daughter?
‘Absolutely not, no way,’ says a pal of Andre. ‘He will be watching her like a hawk.’
Subscribe to Mail+ to continue reading
www.dailymail.co.uk
