Katie Price messaged a teenage girl allegedly raped by her then-husband, asking if he had kissed her and saying: “I will make you a little star,” a court heard.
Ms Price’s ex-husband, Kieran Hayler, is on trial at Lewes Crown Court accused of three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault on the 13-year-old girl in West Sussex in 2016.
Jurors saw messages sent between Ms Price and the girl, when she was then aged 14, in which the media personality said she had heard Hayler and the girl kissed and he had “tried it on” with her, adding: “I’m only asking as this is a serious allegation.”
The teenager replied that it was “just a flirt thing” and “nothing happened”.
Ms Price then asked: “Did he kiss you? I won’t bring up anymore just want truth. I will make you a little star.”
Asked in cross-examination about the exchange as to why she said nothing happened, the complainant, now an adult, said she was “trying to brush it off”.
“I didn’t want to speak to anyone else about it,” she added.
Pressed on what she took Ms Price to mean by: “I will make you a little star,” she told the court: “I don’t think I said anything.
“I think I just ignored it.”
In the conversation, Ms Price went on to ask if Hayler ever said he liked or fancied her, to which the girl replied: “Yes but I took it as a joke.”
Defence counsel Arlette Piercy had suggested to the woman in court that the alleged rapes and sexual assault never happened, but the complainant told the jury: “I would never make it up.”
Judge Mark van der Zwart asked the complainant: “If anyone suggested to you that Katie Price caused or encouraged you to invent these lies about Kieran, your complaints of what he did to you, what would you say to that suggestion?”
The woman replied: “It’s not true, she hasn’t, no.”
Hayler was married to Ms Price at the time of the allegations but their relationship broke down in 2018 and they divorced in 2021.
He 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 heard.
Elsewhere, the complainant told the court on Wednesday she deleted “I love you” texts exchanged with Hayler after he allegedly told her to get rid of them.
Jurors had heard that after the third alleged rape, he texted her afterwards saying “I love you goodnight”, and she replied: “I love you too.”
Ms Piercy said it is not accepted on behalf of Hayler that such texts were sent to her at any time, and the complainant said they were “deleted, long gone, years ago”.
Asked if she deleted them, she replied: “Yes I did. Kieran Hayler was asking to delete my messages.”
The alleged victim is not part of Hayler or Ms Price’s extended families.
The trial continues.
