I applaud Katie Price for talking about her mental health in her documentary, Trauma and Me.
If even one person who is suffering in silence takes strength from her journey, you could argue it was more than worth the Channel 4 airtime. But it is with trepidation that I launch into anything with the model’s name in the title these days.
Like the many brazen publicity stunts she has pulled off over the years, I can’t help but think there’s a PR fairy in her ear whispering: “Do this and you could get your career back on course.”
While Stephen Fry’s documentary about manic depression felt truly credible when it came out years ago, this feels more like an act of redemption.
She tells us that she wants to destigmatise mental health by getting it out in the open. She meets two fascinating people who have gone through trauma and come out the other side. But in several unsettling scenes, you can see the strain Katie’s car crash has had on her poor mum, Amy, who has an incurable lung condition and has to lug a tank around.
“When you’re not well you just want peace and you want everyone to be settled and everyone on an even keel,” Amy sighs.
Who can blame her for wishing that? The cameras join Katie in the aftermath of that accident a year ago – an apparent attempted suicide.
“The time-bomb has been ticking, and the time-bomb has exploded now,” she says, heading to court after being charged with driving over the limit while being disqualified.
Of course she doesn’t get thrown in the slinger. I’m not convinced our prison system is ready for KP just yet.
Instead, she embarks on a journey to discover how to better cope with the triggers that, in her words, “set me off like a firework”. She’s just been through four weeks of trauma therapy. But when she constantly name drops the Priory, which has previously treated her, and wears a “health is wealth” T-shirt, it all feels a little too contrived.
Despite courting the media for years to build up her KP brand, she also spews out more vitriol against the press, for keeping her in the headlines. And then for the real blooper.
“I’m hoping it’s a positive step for my career and my mental health,” Katie declares, before we watch her on another outlandish photocall at the start of the year – this time dressed as a nun. Katie’s “positive step”, it transpires, is relaunching her career on the adult site OnlyFans.
“It’s frustrating to see other girls do what I’ve done for 22 years and they get paid good money and stuff for it. It’s just a no-brainer,” she carps. Perhaps if Katie thought less about dosh and more about doing something meaningful, it would help the healing process.
