Katie Price’s mum reveals what she was really like before she became famous

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday World, Amy Price, who has now written a best-selling autobiography called The Last Word, believes that Katie is suffering from body dysmorphic disorder. She’s had 16 boob jobs.

“I’ve spoken to her about this when I was writing the book and she said, ‘Yes, mum, you’re probably right. But it’s my body and I can do what I like with it,’” says Amy, who is also recovering from surgery after undergoing a life-saving lung transplant.

Amy feels that people should be content with their looks that make them individual, rather than becoming obsessed with perfection. “I think with Botox and filler, everyone now looks the same to me…with the lips. I think it has gone beyond looking nice.

“I say to Kate, ‘Why do you do this to yourself, I don’t think it’s worth it?’ I’m worried that people get addicted to having it done, and it’s dangerous. People don’t realise that even just having the anaesthetic is dangerous.

“They should look at why they are having it done. People believe what they see on social media and with airbrushing it’s so unrealistic.”

Looking back on her daughter’s childhood, Amy remembers that even then Katie had an issues with her appearance.

“She was so tiny that she thought her legs were like pins, so she used to wear three pairs of leggings at a time to fatten her legs up a bit. When you think about it now with all the surgery she’s had, it might even have gone back that far because she was conscious then of her body.

“Other than that, she was quite normal [as a child]. You wouldn’t believe it now, but she was very shy. She didn’t really say much to be honest. She was into her horses. She wasn’t interested in boys up to the age of 15 or 16… and then the trouble started with boys. She was quite easy-going up to then.”

Amy recalls that Katie always aspired to becoming a celebrity. “Kate always wanted to be famous,” she says. “She used to say to me, ‘I don’t need to get any GCSEs (the equivalent of our Junior Cert) because I’m going to be famous anyway.’ She knew what she wanted to do from an early age.”

Has fame affected her? “I think it would affect anyone,” Amy responds. “The drawbacks are the bad publicity she gets. But if you said to Kate, ‘Would you do it all again?’ She’s say, ‘Yes!’ To us, she’s still down to earth. She likes normal stuff like going to garden centres.”

As a parent, Amy admits it has been difficult watching how Katie has been portrayed in the media through the decades.

“The most hurtful thing to read about in the past was that she was a bad mum, when she’s not,” she says. “She’s a fantastic mum. Also that she was a drug addict, which she’s not. Those kind of things I felt were really quite hurtful.

“We know what Kate is like and she has a lot of mental health problems, and I thought it was unfair the way she was being portrayed.

“That was the catalyst for me wanting to explain in the book why she does what she does. From our point of view, as a family we couldn’t understand it and now we know that she is ADHD. That explains the way she thinks differently than we do. She looks at things in a different way and she can be quite impulsive. She has no filter and now we understand that, and she understands it as well... it’s just getting her to shut up.

“I’d like to think some people will change their opinion of her when they read the book.”

One bone of contention between mother and daughter is the string of male partners that Katie has become attached to throughout her life.

Amy tells me: “It’s got to the stage now where we don’t talk about the men in her life because it’s so boring. They all look like clones of each other. We say to her, ‘When are you going to stop looking for good-looking, young, pretty boys and go for a proper man?’ That’s what we say and always get into trouble for it. But that’s the way we all feel now.

“In some ways she’s better off just being single and have someone to take her out every now and then or whatever. We’re just fed up with the men that have been in her life. She needs to grow up. She’s getting older, she needs an older man. Whether that’ll ever happen I won’t hold my breath.

“But she’s in a good place at the moment, with good friends around her. She knows now who the good friends are.”

So what’s it like being the mother of Katie Price? “It’s very hard work,” Amy adds with a laugh.

“It’s like having a naughty puppy around all the time. But she’s also kind and generous.

“She comes to me, puts the kettle on and makes a cup of tea. And I’ve now realised, after all this time, how to be with her as a mum.”

• The Last Word by Amy Price (HP) is out now, with profits going to charities.