Katie Price’s husband Lee Andrews has reappeared on social media weeks after going “missing”, claiming he was held at gunpoint on the UAE-Omani border and had been detained for “espionage”.
The former glamour model and reality TV star started a public campaign to find her husband after the 43-year-old Dubai-based businessman failed to show up for their joint appearance on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, May 12, claiming he had “things to do”.
Price later claimed producers of the ITV programme had spoken to the Foreign Office, who said they had detained a British man with Lee’s name and date of birth.
She did not say which country Andrews, who lives in Dubai, was detained in.
After weeks of speculation, Andrews reappeared on social media with a Facebook post in the early hours of Wednesday, claiming to have been captured by men with assault rifles, “shackled,” and a hood put over his head and taken to a black site on charges of espionage.
He had no use of his phone, he said.
Andrews said the men who captured him were from “an extended arm of the national guard”.
After his release, he claimed to have signed disclaimers “with state security” but did not say which state.
“I can tell you I’m now safe and healthy and with my wife.”
“At no point have I faced anything to do with fraud allegations or any criminal activities such as that,” he said.
In a second video, posted Wednesday morning he said: “I am sending these messages out to my loved-ones and my beautiful wife who without her help involving all the UK authorities, I don’t think I would have got out of that situation.
“Because of the tensions and things happening in the region and me being so close to the border, this is why I was suspected of espionage and held in a state security building without the use of a telephone and any rights, such as a shower, contact or speak to anybody, including the embassy or my wife.
“So thank you to Katie for making such a noise that the UAE actually listened and let me go. From there I did have a civil case in Dubai, which led to me going into the mainstream prison during the Arabic holiday Eid and I was able to secure my release.”
Price has flown out to Dubai to be with her husband. The former glamour model and reality TV star had previously claimed Andrews had been interrogated on suspicion of being “a spy”.
Price and Andrews were married in January, just days after they met in person in Dubai.
It is Price’s fourth marriage. She first wed Australian singer Peter Andre in 2005, eventually getting divorced in 2009. She was married to cage fighter Alex Reid between 2010 and 2012.
Her longest marriage was to Kieran Hayler, from 2013 until 2021.
Price confirmed her relationship with Lee days after she broke up with Married at First Sight’s JJ Slater.
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