The media personality gave evidence from behind a screen at Lewes Crown Court, telling jurors she was “really shocked” by the allegations against Kieran Hayler, who denies all charges.
Katie Price has told a jury she believed a teenage girl allegedly raped by her ex-husband was “afraid”, and that she was “really shocked” by the allegations. Ms Price began giving evidence on Monday at Lewes Crown Court, where Kieran Hayler, 39, is on trial. He is accused of three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in West Sussex in 2016. Mr Hayler denies all the charges.
Price’s evidence
Ms Price gave evidence behind a screen. Speaking about the allegations, she told jurors: “I was shocked… like really shocked. It was a different kettle of fish, it’s a child.”
She said she confronted Mr Hayler, who was her husband at the time, and asked whether he had “done stuff” with the girl. Prosecutor Ryan Richter asked how he responded. “I can’t remember his response but his response all the time was ‘no I hadn’t’,” she said.
Asked about messages she exchanged with the complainant, Ms Price said she could not recall them exactly. “It was that Kieran had tried to kiss her, that he had done stuff to her,” she said. Pressed on the detail, she told the court: “Definitely a kiss and that he said he loved her.”
She said she wanted to get information from the complainant “because it’s serious”. “I could tell that she was, like, afraid,” she said.
Ms Price said she did not discuss the allegations with the girl face to face. Asked whether she urged her to go to the police, she replied: “I was going through it myself. I was having a breakdown at that point. I had to go in the Priory.”
The defence case
Mr Hayler denies the charges. The court has heard that he suggests Ms Price “launched a campaign” against him when their marriage ended, and that the allegations form part of it.
The couple were married at the time of the alleged offences. Their relationship broke down in 2018 and they divorced in 2021. The complainant is not part of Mr Hayler’s or Ms Price’s extended families. She cannot be named for legal reasons.
Earlier evidence about the messages
Jurors were shown messages from May 2017, months after the alleged offences, in which Ms Price told the complainant, then 14: “I will make you a little star.” The complainant told the court she was worried that her messages with Ms Price might be passed on to Mr Hayler. She reportedly blocked Ms Price on Instagram after briefly communicating with her, because she was unsure she could trust her with sensitive information.
The court heard that Ms Price told social services in 2018 that she feared Mr Hayler had groomed and sexually abused the teenager. These were concerns she expressed, not findings that have been established.
A different account from the complainant’s mother
The complainant’s mother gave evidence on 8 October. She said Ms Price appeared angry when told of the allegations and did not seem particularly upset on her daughter’s behalf. She suggested Ms Price’s reaction was directed more at Mr Hayler than at concern for the teenager. That was the mother’s interpretation, and no motive has been established.
The mother said her daughter told her about a year after the alleged incidents that Mr Hayler had “done everything to her”, but initially declined to say more. She also said Mr Hayler had told the girl he had no friends and that she could be his best friend.
The complainant’s evidence
In a recorded police interview played to jurors, the complainant said she had at first held back the full allegations from her mother because she feared being judged and blamed herself. She alleged Mr Hayler told her to keep the encounters secret, warning that he could get into trouble, and encouraged her to delete messages. She also said he described sex as something special and told her to take the secret “to her grave”.
She told the court that after the third alleged rape, Mr Hayler sent her a message saying “I love you goodnight”, and she replied in similar terms. These are allegations that Mr Hayler denies.
How the case reached police
The complainant contacted the NSPCC in 2021, when she was about 18, and the allegations were referred to police. Mr Hayler was interviewed in January 2022 and denied any sexual activity with her. He formally entered not-guilty pleas to all four charges at Lewes Crown Court in December 2025 and remains on bail, with a condition that he must not contact the complainant.
The trial is continuing, and no verdict has been reached.
