Inside Chris Hughes' text scandal with Katie Price and moment Olivia Attwood found out
Ahead of his stint on Celebrity Big Brother next week, we take a look back at Chris Hughes' controversial text scandal with Katie Price while he was still dating Olivia Attwood
Katie Price once descended into a long-standing feud with Olivia Attwood, which stemmed from their shared history with Love Island star Chris Hughes - who is set to head into the Celebrity Big Brother house on Monday, April 7. The former glamour model, 46, famously claimed back in 2017 that Chris, 32, who was dating Olivia at the time, had been sending her "flirty texts."
Despite his initial denials, Katie remained adamant, branding him a "liar" and insisting she had evidence to prove it.
Their clash reached a boiling point at the ITV Palooza party in 2018, where Katie confronted Chris, claiming she possessed 51 screenshots of his replies to her messages.
Olivia, 33, fiercely loyal to her then-boyfriend, publicly backed him and slammed Katie in her magazine columns. Meanwhile, Chris lashed out on Twitter, posting: "I done with this s**t now. You're looking to get back at me, your desperate. Stop sending threatening voice notes to my girlfriend too."
Time, however, seems to have softened the tension. Olivia has since acknowledged that Chris did, in fact, send messages to Katie. Reflecting on her stance at the time, she admitted: "I chose to stand by him at that time.
"I had known him for two months, how am I to know what he was doing?" She further rationalized her decision, explaining in 2018: "All I know is that whether he did or didn't, he didn't sleep with her. It was just a couple of messages."
The topic resurfaced on Olivia's podcast So Right It's Wrong last year, where Katie justified exposing Chris, emphasising her loyalty to other women. "Chris Hughes was messaging me and he was with you [Olivia], and we were at the NTA Awards," she recounted. "And because I'm such an honest person and a girls girl, I was like, 'I'm going to have to tell her and it’s true'."
Katie recalled the moment vividly: "I was like, 'There's so much to tell you,' and I was showing you them. I said, 'If you don’t want to believe me, don't, but I've got no reason to lie to you at all.' I remember we were at some awards, and him and Kem were on stage, and I put my hand up and was like, 'Show us all the texts then, Chris.'"
Olivia remembered the chaos of it all, adding: "At this point he was in the media calling Katie a liar. She heckled him at the ITV Palooza." Katie, standing by her principles, responded: "I hate people that lie, don't lie, and don't be ashamed of me. If you're alright to text me, don't be ashamed of me, don't lie." She reinforced her stance, adding, "That's one thing that I've always done in this industry - don't lie, and the truth always comes out."
Reflecting on the drama, Olivia shared why she had chosen to believe Chris over Katie at the time, as she explained: "You know when you confront someone about something, and they put on such a big reaction? His reaction was so hysterical."
"I was so taken back by the reaction that I was like, 'Surely if it was true, he couldn't be getting this upset.' I always had a question mark on it, and as the weeks went on, I kind of thought - other things happened - we weren't meant to be together." The pair, who met on the 2017 season of Love Island and finished in third place, split in February 2018, after seven months of dating.
It comes as Chris is set to join the Celebrity Big Brother house next week. Chris will be joined by Hollywood star Mickey Rourke, Nickelodeon's JoJo Siwa, Pop star Chesney Hawkes, TV presenter Trisha Goddard, to name a few.
Celebrity Big Brother returns on Monday at 9pm on ITV1, ITVX, STV and STV Player. It will be followed by companion show Late & Live on ITV2 and ITVX from 10.30pm.
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