Katie Piper's heartache after vile messages from bullies 17 years after acid attack
Almost two decades on from being the victim of an acid attack, Katie Piper says she still gets strangers mistaking her scars for cosmetic procedures, with some even telling her to 'lay off the botox'.
While filming her recent TV series, Locked Up In Louisiana, Katie visited a prison in New Orleans, and faced a wave of verbal abuse from its female inmates over her injuries.
'Some of them shouted stuff like, 'Hey lady, are you addicted to Botox?' or 'Slow down on the plastic surgery',' recalls Katie, 41, during a new interview with Radio Times. She adds, 'They didn't know what had happened to me.'
In 2008, Katie was the victim of an attack orchestrated by her ex-boyfriend, where he instructed a man to throw sulphuric acid at her face - leading to the model losing sight in one eye.
The man, Stefan Sylvestre, was given a lifetime sentence for the attack, while Katie's ex-boyfriend was sentenced to 16 years in prison for planning the attack and for rape against Katie. She has had over 400 surgeries to repair the damage to her face and eyesight since.
The mum-of-two, who decided to get an artificial eye earlier this year, has since become a spokesperson for other victims of burns and began the Katie Piper Foundation, a charity to help others impacted, a year after her attack. In 2021, she was made an OBE for her services and charity work.
Now, Katie says that her past experiences earnt her the trust of prisoners in the New Orleans facility while filming for the upcoming show. However, the experience wasn't all positive as many accused her of having surgery for cosmetic reasons.
Sharing that she managed to relate to the prisoners on a deeper level while filming, the Loose Women panelist continued, 'We're all one bad day away from being locked up. You don't know what's going to happen to you in life and who's going to harm you – and how you're going to react when somebody harms you.'
Katie's experience with the prisoners isn't the first time she's been the victim of abuse for her scars, after her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing in 2018 left her to deal with horrific comments from some viewers.
'I got some really horrible abuse, it was awful. I was told 'You look like a monster' by someone one night. It's so cruel. Then someone else said, 'Thank goodness for make-up.,' she told The Mail On Sunday.
But maintaining a strong exterior, Katie reiterated at the time that she was just 'so glad to be alive' following the attack.
Now a regular on the Loose Women panel alongside her new role as a presenter, Katie has been married to carpenter Richard James Sutton since 2015.
The couple share two children, ten-year-old Belle and Penelope, six. Katie's new four-part series, Locked Up In Louisiana, comes after several other documentary-style shows fronted by the star, including Katie Piper: Jailhouse Mums. The show is set to air on 27 April on UKTV's channel U.
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