Reality TV star Katie Price accused her ex-husband’s lawyer of “discrimination” and said “I won’t have anybody call me a liar” during an angry exchange at his rape trial.
Kieran Hayler, 39, is accused of three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in West Sussex in 2016.
During her cross-examination at Lewes Crown Court on Wednesday, Ms Price told Hayler’s lawyer Arlette Piercy: “It was all wrong what he did.
“He’s just a wrong’un, I know he’s done stuff with the (complainant), I got the messages.
“You shouldn’t turn this case against me. The real reason why we’re here is what he’s done to a child, not me.”
In a heated exchange, Ms Price asked Ms Piercy: “Are you calling me a liar?”
Ms Piercy replied: “I am.”
An angry Ms Price responded: “I don’t need to be here. You can see in black and white something’s gone on.
“I won’t have anybody call me a liar.”
Hayler denies the charges and suggests his ex-wife had “launched a campaign” against him when their marriage ended and the allegations form part of this, the court has heard.
He was married to Ms Price at the time of the allegations, before the couple’s relationship broke down in 2018 and they divorced in 2021.
Kieran Hayler arriving at Lewes Crown Court (Gareth Fuller/PA)
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Jurors heard on Wednesday that Hayler told police in his first interview of the allegations in January 2022 that he believed he was being “set up”.
He said “100%” he had not raped the girl, and of the first incident where it is alleged he spoke to her about sex and that the first time was special, he denied it.
He said: “No never, the thought someone thinks I would do that is horrible, it makes me feel sick.”
Hayler said to officers about Ms Price: “I feel she’s planted a seed to (the complainant).”
“It’s like a smear campaign to ruin me.
“For this to come completely out of the blue I feel like somebody here is trying to set me up.”
He added: “Kate would put pressure on anybody. For her to not have anything on me I think kills her a little bit inside.”
In court, Ms Price described allegations against her ex-husband as “disgusting” but said she never went to the press or police about it and it was the complainant who reported it.
Katie Price arrives at Lewes Crown Court (Gareth Fuller/PA)
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Ms Price has concluded giving her evidence from behind a screen over three days in the trial on Wednesday.
In the short cross-examination on Wednesday, Ms Piercy had referenced “cocaine and booze benders”, to which the media personality replied: “That’s discrimination.
“Everyone knows I self-medicated on coke due to Kieran introducing it.
“You are wrong and trying to discriminate me. The press know it all because of my journey. I ended up in therapy and tried to kill myself twice.
“You’re not going to slander my name. I don’t care if you are a barrister, you are not going to slander my name like that.
“I don’t need to sit here like a therapy session.”
Katie Price arrives at Lewes Crown Court, East Sussex, where her ex-husband Kieran Hayler is charged with three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault against a 13-year-old girl. Picture date: Wednesday October 14, 2026.
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Previously on Tuesday she denied being “angry and vengeful” towards her ex-husband, and denied any animosity towards him after a 10-month affair with their nanny.
Jurors heard Ms Price had chosen the nanny because she “wasn’t very attractive” and a “little bit overweight”, in the hope that Hayler would not cheat on her.
Ms Piercy put it to Ms Price: “You are angry and vengeful towards the defendant Kieran Hayler, you have evidenced a vendetta against him over a number of years.”
Ms Price responded: “That is not true.”
When challenged by Ms Piercy on her view of her ex-husband, Ms Price said: “I don’t have any venom against Kieran, it was amicable when we split.”
The court previously heard that Ms Price messaged the teenage girl allegedly raped by her then-husband saying she had heard that Hayler and the girl had kissed and he had “tried it on” with her, adding later: “I will make you a little star.”
Asked in cross-examination by Ms Piercy about her use on occasion of the phrase “little star”, she said: “That’s a figure of speech.”
Asked what did she mean, she added: “I don’t know, when she was 13 there’s no agenda or nothing behind it.
“It’s just a figure of speech.”
Katie Price arrives at Lewes Crown Court, East Sussex (Gareth Fuller/PA)
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On Wednesday morning, Judge Mark van der Zwart warned celebrity Ms Price not to voice her beliefs about her ex-husband’s behaviours with anyone else than the complainant during cross-examination.
The warning comes after she told jurors on Tuesday there were “other kids that haven’t come forward”.
The judge said to her in front of the jury: “When you’re being asked questions today please would you not mention any beliefs you may have whether Kieran Hayler has behaved inappropriately with anyone else apart from (the complainant).”
Giving evidence in the afternoon, the complainant’s former boyfriend told the court she disclosed to him back in 2017 that “something had happened to her”.
He told the court that “very loosely” she told him over text but she “didn’t want to go into detail”.
Asked by prosecutor Ryan Richter if she told him more about it, he replied: “Not really no, I could tell she was uncomfortable speaking about it so I never really pressed her.”
Further asked if she did ever give detail on who had “taken advantage” of her, he added that it was Kieran Hayler.
The complainant first contacted the NSPCC in 2021 over the allegations, who then referred her to the police, prompting the investigation.
The alleged victim is not part of Hayler or Ms Price’s extended families.
The trial continues.