Katie Price confirms she’s still not heard from husband Lee Andrews after suggestions that his disappearance could be a kidnapping for ransom.
In a new video, she pleaded with fans to keep an eye out for him in Dubai, saying the last thing she knew ‘his hands were tied’ and he had a ‘hood over his head’.
‘The police can’t find him anywhere,’ she claimed, despite a report yesterday that he is ‘squatting in a slightly run-down villa’ and using a burner phone to liaise with a handful of trusted contacts.
Katie, 47, has categorically denied having any part in a scheme for publicity, saying she has spent the last 24 hours on the phone with lawyers, wondering if she’s already seen Lee for the final time.
His disappearance has prompted some sceptical fans to speculate that this could be a scam, hoping to get ransom money out of the reality TV star.
‘Like I’ve said before, the police have come back and they can’t find him anywhere,’ Katie continued. ‘I know I said the other day, “Has he been kidnapped?” or a ransom or something, but again, no one’s come to me.
‘If it was a ransom, no one has come to me and I know Dubai is a safe place. I feel safe there, you don’t hear about crimes.’
Katie added it had been a ‘really distressing’ five days, sharing she had been re-reading their messages for clues.
Concluding her message, she added this was ‘not a publicity stunt’, branding anyone who thought she was involved as ‘disgusting’.
Lee, 43, is also reportedly wanted by Interpol after Herts police escalated an investigation involving claims from one of his exes.
The Sun previously claimed that he is ‘frantically planning a route out of this ginormous hole he appears to have buried himself in’.
While that news broke, Katie posted on Instagram promoting CBD to help her during her ‘stressful week’, which sparked more speculation over her potential involvement.
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Additionally, Katie herself has been promised money from Lee, it’s claimed, and he even showed her cheques he’d seemingly deposited into her account. The funds never came to fruition.
It’s been several days since Lee ‘disappeared’, with Katie claiming she last heard from him on Wednesday night before his location went off and his family lost contact at 10:03pm.
Taking to her YouTube channel on Saturday night, Katie confessed that, contrary to a statement released earlier in the week, claiming Lee was ‘taking a break’ from social media, this was not the case. He was actually ‘missing’.
In the days since, she’s been in communication with the authorities in Dubai, who told her that they had no idea of his whereabouts, leading the former glamour model to assume he has been kidnapped.
Katie previously detailed that her final FaceTime call with her husband saw him tied up inside an ‘old, dirty van’ with mesh windows, panicking that ‘they [were] coming back for [him]’.
After four days of silence, Lee’s family took action, with The Sun writing that an official missing persons report was lodged at the British Embassy in Dubai, where Lee claimed to have outright purchased a £36million mansion with the reality star (this has since been exposed as a rental).
Katie married Lee in January after mere days of knowing him. He is her fourth husband, following her marriages to Peter Andre (2005-2009), Alex Reid (2010-2012), and Kieran Hayler (2013-2021).
The supposed businessman was also her ninth engagement, popping the question two days after their first meeting – it later emerged that he had proposed to another woman in exactly the same fashion (rose petals and all) just months prior.
From the start, fans have had concerns about Katie and Lee’s relationship, with her family also worried, considering they have not met him, nor have her children.
Her sister, Sophie, has not minced her words when voicing her opinions on Lee, unable to even ‘say his name’ because of how much he ‘winds [her] up’, and while daughter Princess, 18, and son Junior, 20, just want their mum to be ‘happy’, they confessed in the influencer’s reality series that they learned of her engagement via text.
While Lee, who has lived in Dubai for 21 years, has repeatedly boasted about his so-called entrepreneurial successes, there has been very little evidence to back them up.
He previously insisted that he earns between $2-5m (£1.5-3.7m) annually from the US stock market, among other ventures, funding his lifestyle.
In contrast, several lies on his CV have been exposed, for which he blamed a former personal assistant, claiming to have no involvement in the blunders.
The grand résumé embellishments included Lee’s claims of being a member of the board of advisors for the Labour Party and director of philanthropy at The King’s Trust, formerly The Prince’s Trust. Both organisations denied any affiliation with Lee.
Furthermore, he has been accused of scamming his ex-girlfriends, who have branded him a ‘liar’ and a ‘swindler’.
Previously, American businesswoman Crystal Janke accused Lee of conning her after she believed she had invested £123,000 in his sustainable vehicle company, but he did not repay her, nor did she receive the £1million she was promised.
The so-called wealthy businessman was also recorded appearing to beg another woman for money, days before he popped the question to Katie. He strongly denies that he did so.
An ex who has been especially vocal with her feelings about Lee is Alana Percival, who claims he pulled an identical airport vanishing act on her a year ago, having told her he had a ‘life-limiting heart condition’.
She dated Lee for nine months, during which time he said he ‘loved [her] more than life itself’ in WhatsApp messages she’s since shared online.
Now, though, she believes he is a ‘narcissist’ and has been urging Katie to ‘run for the hills’ before she can fall victim to his alleged cons.
As if all of that didn’t colour his past enough, though he denies such a thing happened, Lee reportedly spent three months in prison last year for fraud.
He is believed to have been detained after his personal trainer ex, Dina Taji, whom he dated for two years, discovered he had forged her signature to take out a £200k mortgage in her name. She allegedly only found out when the mortgage company called her.
After he was reported to the authorities, Lee reportedly served time in Dubai’s Al-Awir central prison, which saw him slapped with a travel ban upon release.
Initially, Lee denied having any travel restrictions imposed upon him, adamant that he can and does leave Dubai regularly.
But Katie eventually confirmed that he does, indeed, have a ban, telling her podcast listeners: ‘You can get a travel ban for absolutely anything.’
As a result, Katie has been the one flying back and forth to the UAE for the last four months before leaving earlier in May to be with her family and for work commitments.
Lee had been due to join her, with a joint Good Morning Britain interview scheduled.
As we know, of course, this did not go ahead, with Katie left to face the music solo and to deny once more that her man had been detained by cops at the airport.
She explained that ‘visa issues’ were holding him back. But Lee never materialised, his ‘kidnapping’ revealed shortly after.
