24/05/2026
Gareth Gates has admitted how "shocked" he was when Katie Price told the world they had slept together 😳
The singer, 41, was just 17 when he placed second on the first series of Pop Idol in early 2002, and just a matter of months later, he embarked on a brief relationship with Katie, who, at that time was one of Britain's top models working under the pseudonym Jordan.
Katie, 47, currently embroiled in the drama surrounding her missing husband Lee Andrews, was quick to claim that she had taken his virginity and, more than two decades on, Gareth has admitted that he would "never" have made such a public statement about her regarding something so private.
He said: "I haven't ever spoken about relationships. I believe that relationships are between two people and I couldn't believe that somebody else was selling stories about very, very intimate details. I was shocked.
"But I learned a lot about the industry, and trust. I would never have done that to her or anybody else. It was a real learning curve for me."
Gareth, who has daughter Missy, 17, with ex-wife Suzanne Mole, and was previously engaged to former Coronation Street actress Faye Brookes but is now in a relationship with West End star Allana Taylor insisted that Katie is a "lovely girl" but did have to quickly learn how to navigate trust early on during his showbiz career.
Speaking to former TOWIE star Jamie Laing on the Great Company podcast, he said: "It was a shame because she's a really, really lovely girl but I couldn't believe that somebody could do that.
"I became very wary of trusting people after that because that was such a big thing, on a massive, massive scale.
"It was everywhere. It became the main thing that everyone wanted to know about. It was a shame I had to talk about it when I just wanted to be an artist. That was tough. It made me extremely wary."
Katie has previously defended the infamous fling, which occurred when she was pregnant. The former glamour model opened up about their infamous romp on the Anything Goes with James English podcast.