Gareth Gates says he was stunned when Katie Price told the world they had slept together, describing the fallout from their brief relationship as a lesson he learned far too young. Speaking on the Great Company with Jamie Laing podcast, Gates said he never would have made such a public statement about someone over something so private.
Gates, now 41, said the attention quickly overwhelmed everything else. He said it was everywhere, became the main thing everyone wanted to know about and left him feeling extremely wary about who he trusted. He added that he was shocked somebody else was selling stories about very, very intimate details and said he could not believe it happened on such a massive scale.
The relationship dates back to early 2002, when Gates was 17 and had just finished second on the first series of Pop Idol. A matter of months later he began a brief relationship with Price, who was then known as Jordan. Price later said on the Anything Goes with James English podcast that she took his virginity when she was six months pregnant, a claim Gates has now said he was never prepared for in public.
Gates said the episode changed how he behaved around other people for years. He said he became very careful about what he texted, what he said and who he confided in, because as a young single man, and not even an adult, he felt anything could be sold. He said it was tough times and stressed that all of it happened before he was 18.
The comments land more than two decades after the burst of fame that made Gates a household name and at a time when the personal lives of young public figures can still be dragged into public conversation in seconds. He is now in a relationship with West End star Allana Taylor, has daughter Missy with ex-wife Suzanne Mole and was previously engaged to Faye Brookes, but the memory he returned to was from the moment he said he first understood how fast private life can become public property.
For Gates, the answer to why it still matters is simple: he said the experience taught him to trust far more slowly, and the lesson came before he was old enough to vote.
