We want our girls to do Love Island – reality TV is family business, says Katie Price & Kerry Katona
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THERE was no more glorious time for showbiz than the late Nineties – just ask Katie Price and Kerry Katona.
They've been queens of the scene for nearly 30 years, forged in the fire of the Chinawhite club, lads' mags and cheesy pop.
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Former hellraisers Kerry Katona and Katie Price are hitting the road for joint tour
Credit: Dan Charity
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Best pals Kerry and Katie share a joke
Credit: Dan Charity
So while big nights together might now involve a takeaway and a crime documentary, they hanker after those halcyon days when being famous was fun, and showbiz parties didn't mean dodging influencers there solely to capture their 'content'.
Kerry, 44, said: 'That's when pop stars and celebrities were proper celebrities! It's not like that now.
'I think me and Kate are like the two originals who are left.'
Katie, 47, adds: 'I think we are. You're just sitting there and thinking, who's still going? There isn't anyone from back in those days. But that was the best time of my life!'
Kerry chimes in: 'And mine. But there's no picture of me falling out of a nightclub!'
Katie laughs: 'There was of me.'
After they burst into the spotlight in the late 1990s, the two have remained best pals, sticking together through six husbands, ten kids, all the scandal and all the drama.
They finish each other's sentences, I can't get a word in edgeways ('You won't need those questions, love,' Kerry trills) and they cackle, constantly.
Grinning as she remembers those early days when she first made it big as The Sun's Page Three queen, Katie goes on: 'London is so different now.
A Katie/Kerry sandwich
'We knew that back in the day, Chinawhite, Wednesday; Saturdays, Emporium; and Twice As Nice on a Sunday. Oh my God, I'm smiling because I look back at them days, the music, everything.
Kerry Katona admits she 'didn't like' close pal Katie Price's Jordan alter-ego as she reveals she persuaded her to do OnlyFans
'It was just . . . you'd be excited to go out. Now I don't go to events unless I'm being paid to be there.'
Kerry agrees: 'Unless you pay me to go, I wouldn't go.'
And, believe it or not, they still get paid handsomely to do so.
Despite more than their fair share of headlines, these girls remain showbiz royalty and can still book out a venue — which is what finds me snuggled up on a sofa, in a Katie and Kerry sandwich.
Across 33 dates, they're taking An Evening with Katie Price And Kerry Katona on the road this autumn.
More on that later but why, I wonder, do they reckon they've still got fans gagging for more?
The thing is, with me and Kerry, we didn't map out what our lives would be. We didn't know we'd still be here 30 years on
Katie Price
Kerry said: 'We are relatable. That's why we're still here, because we have been through sh*t. And there's not many people in this industry who are authentic.
'We weren't like nine-year-old little girls going, 'When I grow up, I want to get married three times, I want to have five children, to three different men' but that is life.'
Katie adds: 'The thing is, with me and Kerry, we didn't map out what our lives would be. We didn't know we'd still be here 30 years on. And not many people we started out with are still here — so we must be here for a reason.'
With another cackle, Kerry adds: 'I think it's because of our new tt jobs.'
Their baggy tops can't hide the fact both are sporting fresh and perky new assets, but there was a time when both of the surgery-loving ladies were considered natural beauties.
They met in the early days, but grew inseparable after their shared stint on I'm A Celebrity in 2004. It makes them each other's most successful relationship, I venture.
Not many people we started out with are still here — so we must be here for a reason
Katie Price
Kerry said: 'We've got lots of love for each other. I know I could tell Kate anything and it wouldn't go anywhere else.
'I can go three months and not speak to Kate and just pick up where we left. Because that's the real thing.
'You don't have to be on a phone with each other 24 hours a day. That's a real friendship. There are things nobody knows anything about I have told Kate, and Kate has told me things, and it goes no further.'
Kerry married Westlife star Brian McFadden in 2002, Mark Croft in 2007 and George Kay in 2014.
Katie's first was Peter Andre in 2005 — with Kerry as a bridesmaid — then Alex Reid in 2010 and Kieran Hayler in 2013.
Maybe they should just commit to each other, I muse. Kerry laughs: 'We said that! We might as well!'
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Kerry and Katie's friendship has survived through the marriages and scandals
Credit: Shutterstock Editorial
Katie adds: 'We actually did say that. We said we could do a wedding programme where we're marrying each other.'
It's probably no surprise that sources have suggested they'd once enjoyed a romantic relationship.
The double act trill: 'What are those sources? HP and ketchup!'
Kerry adds: 'Oh please. Seriously. Silly! But there's love there isn't there Kate?'
Katie said: 'There's always going to be love there.' It's even easier to hang out now that their daughters, Katie's Princess and Kerry's Heidi, both 18, are also best mates.
The 'momagers' have got big hopes for their girls — and scoff at any claims of nepotism.
Kerry said: 'I'm desperate for Princess and Heidi to do the Jungle together. Imagine.
'I can see it in her eyes'
Katie added: 'I always say Love Island. Heidi and Princess need to do it together.'
Kerry said: 'The way I see it is, forget management, forget fame, what an amazing memory. What an amazing adventure.
'So I think if Heidi goes to Love Island for three months and has the best time then that's amazing.
This is our family business. This is what we do as a family
Kerry Katona
'Both me and Kate have done every reality show.
'We are the reality queens. We're part of TV history. When we did I'm A Celebrity, the ratings were the highest they ever had. And we're a part of that.
'Everyone talks about nepotism right, but everyone has a contact for somebody. I can open a door for you. Whether you get through that door and you stay through it, that's on your own f*cking merit.
'You don't see Brooklyn Beckham playing f*cking football, because he's sh*t.
'This is our family business. This is what we do as a family.
'And between the pair of us, we do have an orphanage to feed.'
As well as Heidi, Kerry has a son, Maxwell, 17, with Croft. Then there is Molly, 23, and Lilly-Sue, 22, with McFadden and DJ, 11 with Kay.
Katie has Princess and Junior, 20, with Andre, Harvey, 23, with footballer Dwight Yorke and Jett, 11, and Bunny, ten, with Hayler.
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Katie wants to see her daughter Princess on Love Island
Credit: Instagram
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Kerry's daughter Heidi
Credit: David Cummings
Katie says: 'Quite often if I need to remember something I think, let me Google it. If I have to fill out a form and do the kids' dates of births, I Google it.'
I'm getting a front row seat to the kinds of banter fans can expect from the brand new tour, conceived after the success of their double act as the stepsisters in adult panto Cinderella.
They promise this production will be a little more sophisticated though — unless Jordan comes out to play.
Kerry said: 'With Kate, I can see the alter ego change, when she goes from Kate to being Jordan I can see it in her eyes.
'Sometimes I have to go, get back in your box.'
Katie said: 'She gets embarrassed! Like when we did adult panto, she can't bear it! You'd think that with her Only Fans, Kerry would be quite cool with it.'
Both me and Kate, we've done the drugs, we've done the bankruptcy, we've done the divorces, we have lost so much. We are still here. This is resilience
Kerry Katona
Kerry said: 'At the adult panto, I saw the alter ego arrive and I thought, I'm f*cked here. And I literally ended up going in the wings, and I was so bright red.
'She was in her element, and I'm like, oh my God, I'm going to die.'
The girls have written the show themselves and this time it's all about them.
Kerry explains: 'It's about mental health. It's about struggles. It's about how you got through it. You know, I'm more than happy to talk about heartbreak, but we're not doing exes.
'Both me and Kate, we've done the drugs, we've done the bankruptcy, we've done the divorces, we have lost so much. We are still here. This is resilience.
'Women, we do not lift each other up enough. No one's prepared to straighten each other's crown, and that's what me and Kate do for each other. That is what this tour is about.'
With Kate, I can see the alter ego change, when she goes from Kate to being Jordan I can see it in her eyes
Kerry Katona
Katie adds: 'And how it's changed us as people. I don't like to say I'm glad I've gone through it, but it's made me who I am today, and that is a lot more happy. I'm in the best place I've ever been.'
It wouldn't be a tour with these two without them belting out some ballads, and they've even promised some dancing.
Maybe things haven't changed that much from nights in Chinawhite, after all.
Katie said: 'The thing is, I don't know what it's like to have a nine- to-five job, getting on the train, working in an office. I have no idea what that life would be. I've been doing it from such a young age.'
Kerry added: 'We do it 24 hours every day. We are badass boss bitches. We run our own sh*t and we are creating this ourselves.'
Cheers to the next 30 years.
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Kerry and Katie with The Sun's Felicity Cross
Credit: Dan Charity
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