Katie Price’s mother Amy shares her distress over daughter’s rape horror

Katie Price’s mother has spoken out for the first time about how her famous daughter’s was raped while filming a television show in South Africa.

Former glamour model Katie, 45, was raped during a horrifying carjacking in 2018 while in the country to film for a television programme.

The reality star’s parent Amy, 71, has now spoken of her devastation, recalling how Katie went into a downward spiral before attempting suicide after the incident.

Katie’s terrifying ordeal saw her held at gunpoint while filming for her Quest Red reality show, My Crazy Life.

According to The Sun, Amy wrote in her new book The Last Word: ‘Following a safari trip, which everyone had enjoyed, the production company decided to try to cross the border into Swaziland at a time of day that wasn’t safe, along a road that wasn’t safe.

Devastating: Former glamour model Katie, 45, was raped during a horrifying carjacking in South Africa in 2018 while in the country to film for a television programme

‘They were attacked by four robbers. One of the men put his hands down Kate’s trousers and sexually assaulted her before touching her all over and hitting her hard.’

Amy said the trauma from the incident sent Katie on a downward spiral, adding: ‘It would be easy to pinpoint the beginning of Kate’s downward spiral to the carjacking fiasco.

‘A few months after the traumatic incident, one of Kate’s friends rang me to say they had found her trying to kill herself.’

Amy added that she thought her illness also contributed to Katie’s troubles, after she was diagnosed as terminally ill with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable lung condition, in 2017.

She said Katie relied on her ‘as her protector, confidante and first emergency service’, adding her daughter must have feared coping without her.

Katie previously detailed the traumatic events that led her to reaching breaking point, suffering a mental breakdown in 2018, and a failed suicide attempt where she ‘knocked herself out and had black eyes’ – after which she sought treatment for PTSD.

She told MailOnline: ‘The experience when I was filming with ITV in South Africa, we had no security, if we had security they would have been able to deal with the six guys that jumped us, held me at gunpoint and raped me.’

Katie was thrown out of the vehicle by the attackers, during her journey from Johannesburg to Swaziland in two people carriers with the production crew.

Aftermath: Speaking in an interview with MailOnline, the media personality, 44, recalled the terrifying ordeal which saw her held at gunpoint during filming for her Quest Red reality show, My Crazy Life with ITV

The vehicles were ransacked of laptops, iPads, passports, cash and jewellery – but the robbers left behind a fortune in camera gear which the crew had stored on board. The attackers were never apprehended.

Katie first discussed her harrowing experience during an episode of Channel 4’s SAS: Celebrity Who Dares Wins in 2020, where she said: ‘Police said it was a miracle they didn’t kill us.’

During her new Channel 4 show Trauma and Me last year, she candidly revealed: ‘I hit severe depression a couple of years ago, depression on top of PTSD, I was suicidal, didn’t want to be here. I tried to kill myself.

‘I knocked myself out and had black eyes. I had bruises around my neck. I woke up. I didn’t want to be here.’

Her stays at The Priory rehab clinic have been to treat her post traumatic stress disorder. 

She also added that through therapy she has learnt to deal with her past and recognise what triggers her.

Katie detailed: ‘I have had my eyes opened about a lot. When you go in The Priory, people assume that it must be for drinks or drugs.

‘I have never ever been in The Priory for drink, drugs or addiction. I have been in The Priory for trauma rehabilitation for PTSD.’

If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org.