They haven’t seen eye to eye since their bitter split 16 years ago. And now insiders say the feud between Katie Price and Peter Andre – her ex-husband and father of two of her children – has reignited over both her lifestyle choices and her parenting decisions.
The mum-of-five has raised eyebrows in recent months for her extreme surgery choices, dramatic weight loss and her self-confessed vaping addiction, and insiders say this, as well as her ‘organic’ parenting, has left Pete at his wits’ end.
A source reveals, ‘Pete hasn’t been happy with Katie’s recent behaviour and it’s sparked a new feud with her. He doesn’t want the kids looking at her and copying some of the decisions she’s made. He feels like he’s watching Katie spiral – with her recent surgery and addictions – and it’s made him anxious and feel like he’s on tenterhooks, expecting something bad to happen.
‘On top of that, he’s fed up with Katie’s laid-back lifestyle. He’s always been the stricter parent and has believed in structure and rules, but at Katie’s home there’s none of that. There’s no routine and the kids can stay up late, friends can stay over whenever they want and so they like staying there.
‘He’s been saying, “I’m trying to raise kids, she’s trying to win a popularity contest.” He feels like he’s done everything he can to raise those kids with discipline, respect and emotional stability, but now he feels like Katie’s undoing it.’
The former couple co-parent their kids, Junior, 19, and Princess, 17, who split their time between Pete’s family home with his wife Emily and half siblings Amelia, 11, Theo, eight, and one-year-old Arabella, and Katie’s Sussex rental home.
Peter’s spoken out about his firm parenting style, saying, ‘I’m proud to be a strict-ish dad. As I have told Junior, if they did something wrong I wasn’t angry, just disappointed sometimes. I have great conversations with the kids. Yes, I’m strict, but in what I hope is the right way.’
Meanwhile Katie, 46, has said, ‘The kids love coming to me, I’m completely different, I’m the laid-back one. They get a bit of both, they get the strict parent and the easy-going one where they can stay up later and watch a movie… I like the kids being a bit feral.’
But Katie has recently sparked concern from fans over some of her lifestyle choices. The star – who has had three rehab stints in the last five years and has admitted to doing cocaine – has also claimed she’s ‘completely addicted’ to vaping and has alarmed fans for vaping while sitting next to her newborn niece Olive and also while on a train, which is illegal.
She’s also worried many fans with her drastically different appearance, having recently undergone a series of plastic surgery operations – including her third facelift, a nose job and a new set of veneers – and losing a dramatic amount of weight.
But the source says that Katie isn’t bothered by her fans – or Peter’s concerns – saying, ‘Kate brushes off the worried comments whenever she gets an influx of them on social media when she posts a new picture. She is insistent that she’s totally fine – she loves her new look and she’ll get a hold on the vaping when she needs to.
‘And with regards to any parenting concerns from Pete, she has told pals he isn’t Mr Perfect and he didn’t write the book on parenting. She argues that he has no grounds to make judgement of the way she does things. In her eyes, under her roof they have fun, and she just says Pete hates the fact the kids prefer hanging out with her.’
While things are bitter between Katie and Pete now, they were once the original IT couple of their time – and were said to be worth more than £30 million in their heyday.
After meeting on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2004, the pair married a year later and went on to have their kids, with Peter also becoming stepfather to Katie’s son by Dwight Yorke, Harvey, now 22.
The couple quickly built their own empire – with magazine cover shoots, fragrance lines, a joint music album and nine series of their TV show, Katie & Peter.
But it all came crashing down five years later, and since their acrimonious divorce, things have remained tense between them. While Peter has largely kept tight-lipped, Katie has hit out at her ex numerous times, branding Pete a ‘hypocrite’ and ‘boring’ – dubbing him ‘the fat Greek’ at one of her solo shows in 2007.
Even recently, Katie – who has been married twice since Peter – said it was Peter’s ‘lucky day’ when they met. ‘He was no one before he went in the jungle and that’s the truth, that’s not me being a b****,’ she said. ‘I think he forgets where he came from.
And now insiders say Peter is not afraid to take things up a notch in their feud if changes aren’t made, saying, ‘Pete’s terrified the kids are going to suffer as a result of Katie’s approach to parenting. He’s considering consulting lawyers about what his options are. He won’t sit back and watch his kids spiral, not on his watch, and at this point he doesn’t trust Katie’s judgement. He’s been patient and he’s tried to be diplomatic, but enough is enough and things could get nasty.’