PRICEY'S PRICELESS

'What brings next to Katie Price’s life, I wonder?' Katie rambled to the camera on her new reality show – and before you ask, no she wasn’t drunk. Whilst she can’t half come out with some wonderful nonsense, Katie can actually be quite profound, be it intentional or not.

Last week, in the first episode of her itv2 series, What Katie Did Next, we caught a glimpse of the Pricey’s new life since her husband, Peter Andre, left the family home for good. Was she sitting alone in her pyjamas (from the Katie Price bedwear range, naturally), watching daytime TV, sobbing into a ready-meal for one? Nope. She was throwing a joint birthday party for all three of her children, attending meetings for her soon to be released style book – good, LORD – and shooting her 2010 calendar in Ibiza. She’d surrounded herself with her family and old friends, and seemed happier than ever. She’d even become involved with a hot new man, cage-fighter Alex Reid. What’s that?! Pete who?

She claimed that, despite it only being a couple of months since the split, she has moved on with her life and will not waste another second thinking about her failed marriage, an attitude that caused media commentators to call her ‘cold and heartless’. Focused? Yes. Ruthless? Perhaps. But heartless? Absolutely not.

But I forget, women aren’t meant to be this strong. They’re meant to mull over the split for at least six months and wonder ‘what if…’ Katie’s mum defended her: ‘I can’t see her doing a Bridget Jones – she’s not like that.’ What she is like, however, is uncontrollable. Something that both Pete and the press disliked.

Over the past few months, Katie has been vilified by the press. The tabloids (falsely) accused her of threatening to ‘cut up’ another woman at a nightclub, blamed her for triggering her own miscarriage with booze, flights and marathon training and, obviously, labelled her a bad mum.

Why do the press despise her so much? Well, my theory is that she goes against everything they stand for: she’s a strong, opinionated, self-made woman, with her own thoughts and her own mind. Women are meant to sacrifice their identity when they have children: they cannot be sexy, they are frowned upon if they go out and get pissed once in a while, and they’re made to feel guilty if they leave their children to go to work.

They’re certainly not supposed to writhe around on the Ibiza sand in an itsy-bitsy bikini by day, and binge drink with her mates at night, wearing not much more. Pete branded her a ‘disgrace’ and a ‘despicable mother’, for this behaviour, and the press were right behind him, all to ready to condemn a woman for doing and job and letting her hair down afterwards.

Yet no one batted an eye-lid when Andre posed in nothing but his tighty-whities for the News of the World. Pulling his best ‘I’ve been wronged’ face, standing in front of a full-length mirror, wearing only (what appeared to be) toddler pants, he pathetically begged the readers to take him seriously as a ‘credible artist’. Per-lease. At least Katie knows who she is. She made her name as a glamour model, and is proud of it. She doesn’t pretend to be anything she’s not.

Pete’s ‘feel sorry for me’ story smacks of hypocrisy: first playing the ‘dignified silence’ card, then selling his story to anyone who’ll listen the second his budget Justin Timberlake single needs flogging.

Meanwhile, Katie has moved on with her life and is being quite philosophical about it all: “I’m more challenged than ever. It’s just made me step it up again. I’m gonna prove I’m an independent woman, not a single woman. Life goes on, you know. I still have to work to support my kids, because you could be gone tomorrow. You only live once, so just get on with it.”

And it’s Katie’s ‘just bloody get on with it’ attitude that I find so inspiring. It’s certainly more helpful that Pete’s ‘She-did-something-really-bad-but-I’m-not-tellin’ guff. She’s even rebranding herself, refusing to be labelled lonely, or lacking: ‘I don’t like the word “single”. I’m an independent, working-mum.” Hear, hear.

I’m sure people won’t like to believe it, but we could all learn a thing or two from the Pricey. She makes everything look so effortless; taking it all in her stride. She comes across as so driven and focused: ‘We were married: it failed. We had marriage counselling, but we obviously weren’t meant to be. It’s like – “Let’s get divorced, get on with your life. Go find some perfect woman.” I’m obviously not the one for him – he couldn’t control me.’ Here is a woman who will not allow a man – or anyone – stand in her way, or tell her what to do. Thought-provoking stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree.

I, for one, cannot wait for tonight’s episode, to find out What Katie Did Next…