It was like an episode of a bad crime drama: A missing husband, kidnap claims and a desperate plea to the public for information.
Only this wasn’t an instalment of a low-budget, poorly shot television series. It was just the latest twist in Katie Price’s chaotic love life, laid bare in a video she posted to her 2.6million Instagram followers last weekend.
Katie claimed that Lee Andrews, the self-styled businessman and entrepreneur who married the former glamour girl just days after they met in January, had disappeared from Dubai airport and hadn’t been in contact with her for days.
Katie last spoke to Lee when he was trying to board a flight at 10pm on Wednesday to meet her in the UK.
‘Lee was trying to get through the border at Hatta. His location went off at 10.03pm on Wednesday night. That’s the last contact anyone has had with him,’ she told fans.
But in a bizarre turn of events, she went on to say that Lee told her he was being ‘captured or arrested’. Lee, 43, told Katie that he had a ‘hood on’ and his ‘hands were tied’, before telling his new wife: ‘They’re coming back for me’.
Beside herself, Katie, 47, filed a missing person’s report, but told fans ‘no one can find him in any prison, any police station. The police can’t find any record of him’.
After contacting the head of the Criminal Investigations Department in Dubai, Katie established that her husband hadn’t been detained by the authorities, who were also unable to locate him.
Katie Price claimed on Instagram that her new husband Lee Andrews had disappeared from Dubai airport and she had filed a missing person’s report
So Katie took to Instagram to plead with dedicated fans to help find him.
‘Everyone has their thoughts on everything, but at the end of the day I am married to Lee,’ she said. ‘He is my husband and I am experiencing these feelings and I’m just really, really worried.’
Despite confessing her fears for Lee’s safety, it was just hours later that Katie shared a link to her OnlyFans account and later a photo of a trip to the cinema with her son Harvey.
On Monday morning, rather than launching another plea to the public for information about Lee, she shared a photo of new beds arriving at her house, calling it an ‘exciting day’.
And after months of defending the man who has been accused of scamming multiple women, we can reveal that sources close to Katie say she’s becoming ‘sceptical’ about Lee’s motives.
‘For a few months Katie went along for the ride. She loves the publicity and the attention and she’s always been happy to create a bit of a pantomime around her life, but on this occasion she’s started to realise she’s been stung,’ an insider close to Katie told the Daily Mail.
‘She thought she was going into the relationship with her open eyes and for a bit of fun, but instead has become increasingly sceptical about Lee’s motives, while several friends and family members have been urging her to protect herself. They think he’s a liar and bad news for her.’
According to our source, Katie is ‘slowly becoming convinced that he is a total con man’ after being ‘contacted by a string of other people connected to Lee’, making it ‘too much to simply ignore’.
Accusations against Lee rolled in thick and fast as he entered the public eye after announcing his nuptials with Katie.
First his ex-fiancee Alana Percival claimed he scammed multiple women out of hundreds of thousands of pounds – allegations that Lee denied.
Then came the grand, outlandish claims: that he has a PhD from Cambridge, he worked with Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk, and he was preparing to buy Chelsea FC.
And Lee’s grandiose business claims have further been called in to question after he joined the adult content app OnlyFans last month, creating an account to sell photos and videos of himself.
He does not attempt to hide his face or identity on the page, although posting on the site is illegal in Dubai where he lives, and was last active on the site on May 13 – the day Katie last had contact with him.
Under UAE cybercrime and penal codes, sharing, producing, or consuming pornography is illegal. Creators posting explicit content face extreme risks of arrest, fines of up to AED 1,000,000 (£204,500) and immediate deportation.
Despite the ban, there is a large community of adult content creators living in Dubai, who use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to access the site. To avoid police attention, these creators generally operate in strict anonymity, shoot content exclusively indoors, and avoid drawing public attention to their online work.
After contacting the head of the Criminal Investigations Department in Dubai, Katie established that her husband hadn’t been detained by the authorities, who were also unable to locate him
Lee’s home in Dubai. There are rumours that he is blocked from leaving the country, as he’s subject to a travel ban
Katie recently admitted that she was unable to make content for her own account while in Dubai and said she was glad to be back in the UK to continue posting on the app.
In spite of warnings about Lee from friends and family, Katie was smitten with him and simply shrugged off the doubters.
But things changed for Katie last week after she was left sitting alone on the Good Morning Britain sofa. Lee was supposed to join her on ITV for the couple’s first joint interview, but he failed to make his flight, insisting he had ‘business stuff’ to do.
Katie believed Lee’s claims that he had been detained by airport officials and blocked from leaving Dubai, which seemed plausible amid rumours that he’s subject to a travel ban for allegedly forging his ex-girlfriend Dina Taji’s signature to secure a £200,000 mortgage .
But shortly after Lee failed to make the interview, Katie was pictured without her wedding ring, in what was perhaps one of the first cracks in their seemingly solid relationship.
‘Even Katie, who loves a drama, is starting to feel pretty stupid,’ said another source.
‘At first, she was happy to orchestrate all of the attention around this. She was very happy when people started to get excited and she got herself back into the newspapers, but there is a limit even for her.
‘She had no idea things would get so far out of control – and has now realised she barely knows the man she has become involved with.’
Last week Katie herself admitted that her four-month marriage to Lee was unfolding like a ‘soap opera’ – each twist more unbelievable than the last. And now perhaps, for her at least, this latest storyline has run its course.
