Katie Price needs help – not more surgery

It’s hard to open a celebrity news site lately without pictures of Katie Price either jetting off to Turkey for cosmetic surgery or back home afterwards covered in bandages.

Her most recent facelift, which reportedly comes less than a year since the last one, is thought to be her sixth – a number dwarfed by her 17 breast ops.

Price’s surgical to-do list is reported to include getting ‘fox eyes’ and, according to a source via Closer magazine, ‘having her ears removed, then re-stitched in place and pinned back so that they don’t stick out’ – something that sounds like it belongs in a horror film rather than a beauty clinic.

I do get why celebrities like Katie Price go under the knife – but it’s become clear she’s gone too far and I’m starting to worry for her wellbeing. 

As a former glamour model, she has built her career and fortune on her face and body.

Most of us – especially women who have also hit their forties – can understand the pressure to maintain our looks, and the dismay when time takes its toll on our appearance.

A tabloid staple, ‘the Pricey’ is under constant scrutiny, and both the media and wider society can be cruel in their judgement and condemnation of middle-aged women. But Price has gone far beyond a bit of Botox and a tweak or two.

Nor is this a case of a one-off procedure to, say, straighten a wonky nose that had bothered you all your life – so I can’t help but feel sorry for her.

There is something compulsive and addictive in Price’s seemingly unending pursuit of cartoonish physical perfection via the surgeon’s knife. And her latest facelift is just another step along a dangerous road.

Of course, Price is a grown woman, and enjoys full personal autonomy. As she has said herself: ‘It’s my body and I do what I want to do. That’s how it should be, your body, your choice.’ Agreed.

By most measures, the artist formerly known as Jordan is a huge success. From working-class origins, she went on to make (albeit then lose) millions, with an impressive project portfolio spanning modelling, books, music, perfume and endorsements.

She’s clearly an impressive and capable individual – why should she care what others think she should do? But her obvious street smarts just make her journey down the plastic surgery rabbit hole all the sadder and more perplexing.

Price was – and is – a beautiful woman, with the high cheekbones and defined jawline that would have kept her naturally attractive into middle age and beyond. She doesn’t ‘need’ any of this work.

And then, there is the danger. Facelifts and breast augmentations or reductions are serious surgery, with all the attendant risks: infection, bleeding, scarring, nerve damage – or worse.

Price said that she felt like she was going to die after a 2021 bout of surgery – and indeed many patients have.

MTV star Jacky Oh, who was just 33; 58-year-old Mary Jane Thomas, the wife of country music star Hank Williams Jr.; and Silvina Luna, a 43-year-old Argentine model and actress, are a few of those from Price’s celebrity circles who have lost their lives following cosmetic procedures. This is not to mention the many other lesser known beauty seekers who have flown to Turkey for ‘butt lifts’ or tummy tucks and never come back.

Price is a single mother-of-five, three of whom are still minors, and rely on her to be well enough to care and provide for them. Her eldest, Harvey – whose special needs have left him with complex health challenges, and whose dad, ex-footballer Dwight Yorke, is out of the picture, having seen his son about nine times in his life, according to Price – needs his mum in particular.

She has been a heroic champion for her son, and it’s unfathomable that she can be so cavalier about round after round of elective surgery that she acknowledges jeopardises her health.

Price also has two daughters. What kind of message do her endless cosmetic enhancements – essentially butchering herself to fit in with society’s beauty standards – send to them about self-esteem and body confidence?

The model’s cosmetic surgery addiction has prompted comparisons with Swiss socialite and fellow bankrupt Jocelyn Wildenstein, the so-called ‘Bride of Wildenstein’ who died a month ago at 84 from a pulmonary embolism – a parallel Katie even drew herself after a separate procedure in 2021. 

But she is not quite there yet, despite her bizarre claim she will keep having procedures until she resembles a Bratz Doll.

There is still time for those who love the mother-of-five to urge her to stop while she retains most of the recognisable face that helped launch her incredible career.

There is nothing remotely wrong with how Katie Price looks – but compulsive plastic surgery is never solely about looks.  

The problem is in her head, not her face. Price has faced numerous, well-documented mental health challenges, from addiction to PTSD and ADHD.

To truly feel better, she needs to head for the therapist’s couch, not back onto the operating table. 

And I say all of this from a place of concern. I can’t bear to see her go much further in her aesthetic pursuits. 

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing James.Besanvalle@metro.co.uk. 

Share your views in the comments below.

MORE: £321,000,000 funding shortfall leaves women’s refuges worried they ‘won’t survive’

MORE: This traumatic moment in The Traitors made me stop watching

MORE: I want to uninvite someone from my wedding – my bridesmaid