Katie Price has said "I don't make anything up" after opening up about how she was brutally raped at gunpoint in a terrifying car-jacking in South Africa back in 2018.
The 44-year-old appeared on Steph's Packed Lunch on Thursday, hours before her Channel 4 documentary, Katie Price: Trauma and Me was supposed to air. The show was postponed due to the sad news of the Queen's passing.
According to The Mirror, when host Steph McGovern asked her how there were so many traumas in her life, trolls have claimed she is "making up" her traumatic events, Katie hit back: "I can't make kidnap threats, you can't make up these situations, they're events. Facts. They are real horrific things."
"I don't make any of it up. Everyone knows me, I've been called a 'liar' so many times and the truth always come out. I'm not here for sympathy." Katie was travelling from Johannesburg to Swaziland in two people carriers when they were car-jacked, with the attackers ransacking the vehicles and running off with iPads, passports and jewellery.
Speaking about the harrowing incident, Katie told Steph: "It was horrific being held at gunpoint. It was horrific. That was three years ago." It comes after Katie said earlier this week: "The experience when I was filming with ITV in South Africa we had no security, if we had security they would have helped when the six guys jumped out, held me at gunpoint and raped me."
Elsewhere in the interview, the television personality spoke about her mental health battle and how it contributed to her "doing something stupid" on the night she got behind the wheel and crashed her BMW in drink-drive smash last September. Katie pleaded guilty to drink-driving, without insurance and whilst disqualified after her drink-drive crash last September.
The star swerved jail and was sentenced to a 16 week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months and 100 hours of unpaid work in community. She told Steph: "If I was happier, I wouldn't do something stupid. That night. I'm not even a big drinker. I got a phone call which I didn't like and I got in the car."
In the documentary, the mother-of-five says the ordeal led her to develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and caused a severe depression that led her to an attempt to take her own life. She said: "I was suicidal at one point I did try to take my life. I will never ever get in that situation again. All I saw was my kids faces.
"It's so good to talk to someone and you're not alone. When you go to The Priory as much as I think it's great to do that you get criticised people think you're nuts and you're not." Katie talked openly about her mental health battle in the hope it will gives others the courage to seek professional help.
"I've said 'I'm fine' for too many years. When really inside I'm not," she said. "I've had so many traumas, I've had serious traumas. It's hard, I'm human at the end of the day. I've just had to let it out. I'm so glad I did."
Katie previously said in a chat with Mirror Online : "There's a stigma that if you're in The Priory you're a wrong 'un. Where I think people going to The Priory are brave because they are facing their demons.
"Facing whatever their problem is to make them a better person." Katie says she now sees a therapist every two weeks and with help, has changed her outlook and the way she reacts to difficult situations that arise.
"Unfortunately I did get into that place and I will never get into that place again," she said. "It's real, it happens and it did happen to me." Katie explained: "I talk to my older kids about everything. I want them to know mental health is an illness, it's like any other illness and you can't see it."
*If you're struggling and need to talk, the Samaritans operate a free helpline open 24/7 on 116 123. Alternatively, you can email jo@samaritans.org or visit their site to find your local branch
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