Katie Price’s ex-husband speaks for first time since being cleared of rape: 'Five years of hell'

Katie Price’s ex-husband Kieran Hayler has spoken about his “five years of hell” for the first time since being cleared of raping a 13-year-old girl.

The 39-year-old personal trainer was found not guilty of three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault of the teenager in West Sussex in 2016 following a trial at Lewes Crown Court last month. He was also cleared of four alternative counts of sexual activity with a child.

Ms Price and Mr Hayler were together for five weeks before they got engaged and subsequently married in the Bahamas in January 2013.

Mr Hayler told the court that he believed the charges were part of a “smear campaign” against him by his ex-wife.

In his first interview since the trial, he told the Daily Mail that the case felt like it was “just a game” for Ms Price.

Mr Hayler said: “My take on Kate is that she is her own boss and she directs the narrative in her life, in her ex’s lives, her friends’ lives and if you deviate from that, you’re in trouble. That’s where the revenge starts.

“It was almost like she just wanted to throw as much at me as possible and then walk out and leave.”

Mr Hayler told jurors “trust had gone on both sides” in the marriage by midway through 2013, but the couple did not split up until 2018 when he moved out and they later divorced in 2021.

He maintained throughout the trial that the case was about his “feud” with Ms Price, although she denied being “angry and vengeful” in her evidence.

Mr Hayler told the Mail: “I’ve built up a real thick skin when it comes to Kate, and I’ve had to do that for many, many years.

“I can take her abuse, I can take her threats, I can take her allegations, I can take all of that because I’ve built up a thick skin. But what’s not nice is when you have to sit there and listen to it and not be able to say anything back.”

He added that waiting for the verdict in the trial was “the lowest point” of his life, and described packing his bag to take to prison.

“At that point I’d just gone through the three worst weeks of my life and five years of hell, hell over something that I never did,” he said.

Ms Price’s first day of evidence during the trial led to Mr Hayler’s defence team calling for the jury to be discharged, accusing her of a “premeditated attempt to bring down this trial”.

In a legal application to the judge, barrister Arlette Piercy argued that evidence given by Ms Price resulted in an “overwhelming tsunami of prejudice to us which we are simply unable to deal with”.

Of Ms Price’s evidence, Ms Piercy said: “She then went on a deliberate, malicious and in my submission, premeditated attempt to bring down this trial.”

Judge Mark van der Zwart dismissed the legal bid, but in his ruling, he said Ms Price was, “what barristers of a previous generation would have called a dangerous witness”, and later gave the jury a warning to disregard her submissions.

Mr Hayler said the first thing he did after being found not guilty was pick his son up from school.

He said: “When I left court I didn’t go and celebrate. I got in the car and I drove straight to the school and I picked my son up. Because that to me is the most important thing. It’s not about a celebration of being innocent. It’s about being able to be a dad.”

Following the verdicts, a Sussex Police spokeswoman said: “Following the not guilty verdicts, we will now take some time to consult the victim and witnesses in the case and our partners to determine the next steps.”

Ms Price declined to comment on the allegations about her conduct made by Mr Hayler.