Katie Price Stops Search for Missing Husband

Katie Price has said she is giving up the search for her 'kidnapped' husband and will no longer speak about it a week after he first vanished.

The former glamour model, 47, made the announcement on her latest podcast episode, which she had to cut short to answer a phone call from the police.  

During the video, Katie said she won't let the disappearance of Lee, 43, 'ruin her life' following reports she has been 'ghosted' by her husband.

Katie, who married Lee in January after a whirlwind 10-day romance, revealed her devastation at the weekend as she declared Lee had been missing since Wednesday.

The mother of five initially begged her followers to help her search for Lee, but Katie has now said she will be stepping back 'for her own sanity'. 

Katie said she feared Lee had been taken after a string of garbled messages where he told her he had been cuffed and put in a van before 'going dark'.

On the latest episode of her The Katie Price Show podcast she said she is now 'leaving it to the police'.

She said: 'There's nothing I can do, nothing more that I can say. And the police are dealing with it. I'm just leaving it to the police.

'I'm not gonna talk about it anymore, I'm just staying quiet because it's getting ridiculous now, people just taking the p**s out of everything'.

Katie added: 'The police are now handling it, the British police, British consulate, the foreign office, Interpol they're on the case looking for Lee.

'All I can do is just get on with my life. I've got lots of exciting things coming up, and I'm just waiting for a call. What am I supposed to do, sit here and cry and do nothing, stay in bed? No because I'm not that'.

'We will find out everything I'm sure. That's not me trying to sound harsh, it's just how I'm dealing with everything'. 

She also said: 'For my own sanity, I am taking a step back'.

Katie went on to say she no longer knows what to believe after the latest bizarre twist in her shotgun marriage.

As skepticism grows regarding the motive behind his sudden disappearance, Katie says even she doesn't know what's true after relentlessly defending her beleaguered husband from his army of critics.

She said: 'There's only one person I need to look after and that is myself, I've still got to work, there's exciting things coming up, but for my sanity... I don't know what's true, what's not true. I'm like that now, I don't know. 

'Like I said, my tentacles are up now, my antennas are up and I've decided to take a step back from everything, assess everything my way, and just continue with my life, and what will be will be.'

In another telling move, Katie titled the podcast: 'My tentacles are up, I am not stupid'. 

The podcast came to an abrupt end when Katie received a call from the police.

She was asked a question from her sister Sophie, who could be heard saying: 'I can't hear her…'

The show was then paused and Sophie returned alone and told listeners the show would be ending early as Katie had received a phone call from the police.

Sophie said: 'Right guys, sorry about that little intermission.

'Kate has had to shoot off because she's taking a call from the police, so that is it for today's episode. Come back next week. Hopefully next week will be a bit calmer. We'll keep you posted.

'As Kate said, she's taking a step back which is for the best given the circumstances at the minute.'

Hours before the release of the podcast, Katie shared posts about 'focusing on herself' a week after her husband's apparent disappearance.

She posted several cryptic messages including one about 'knowing her worth', but gave no further explanation for the posts.

Just yesterday, Katie uploaded a new vlog begging her fans and the media to help her find her husband.

However, just hours after the emotional video about Lee's disappearance, Katie reposted a statement about 'having to accept a situation'.

The post read: 'Sometimes you just have to accept the situation and say, it's okay, it happens, it's life.'

Another one, said: 'Focus on yourself, because nothing is more powerful than a woman who knows her worth, chases her goals and dares to dream big.'

Underneath the message, Katie had added: 'Boom'. 

She also suggested she has been pushed to the limit, revealing she is feeling 'overwhelmed' amid the stress of Lee's concerning vanishing.

The post she shared, said: 'I'm not overwhelmed because I can't handle it. I'm overwhelmed because I do handle it. All of it. All the f***ing time.'

Earlier in the evening, Katie clarified that she had been using Lee's Facebook after fans claimed they had spotted him looking active on the social media platform.

Former The Apprentice star , 38, claimed to have seen Lee 'active' online as she started her 'manhunt' to find the missing 'businessman'.

But Katie took to her Instagram stories later in the evening to claim it was actually her who had been on Lee's profile.  

Alongside a screenshot of his page, she wrote: 'I have Lee's Facebook. It's not him on this, it's me'. The post has since been deleted.

The situation sounds like a crime drama and a new report claims that Lee 'boasted he was an arms dealer who worked with dangerous people' in the weeks before his mystery disappearance.

The self-titled businessman, who married back in January after a whirlwind 10-day romance, has been accused of 'writing a storyline' by insiders.

The troubled glamour model last spoke to her husband when he was trying to board a 10pm flight from  to Britain on Wednesday last week.

'Lee said he had many jobs, one being an international arms dealer. He seemed really proud of it,' a source told The Sun. 

'He boasted repeatedly to anyone who cared to listen that he worked with dangerous people. He bragged about it and then he gets kidnapped. It's almost as if he's been writing a storyline.' 

The Daily Mail contacted Katie's representative for comment at the time of publication.

Katie has said she believes Lee has been kidnapped, after he 'went dark' mid conversation last week.  

The model has released her last communication with Lee in the hope it will help track him down.

In the messages, which were sent from 12.36am to 1.01am early last Thursday morning in Dubai time, the so-called 'businessman' told her: 'Been arrested. I'll be in touch. I'm ok xx.'

Trying to get more details, Katie replied within five minutes asking him: 'Where? Why? I'm worried' and told her husband she loved him.

Lee then revealed he didn't know where he was being taken as they had his 'other phone'.

Katie asked: 'If they take your phone how will I get hold of you? Should I have your dad's number?'

Lee shared his live location and told her to contact the embassy and that he was being taken to a 'black site'.

The Sun also reports he gave his father's number to Katie as an emergency contact. 

The live location then ended with the message: 'Keep that on babe. Love you'. 

Lee then appeared to backtrack on his claims that he was arrested as he told Katie: 'It's a black site, I love you, I sort it. I'm in the van… just being detained wtf.'

A friend told The Sun: 'Katie has been completely spiralling, as you can imagine. This is NOT a publicity stunt – as if she needs any more PR – and no matter what Lee has or hasn't done, she still loves him.

'These WhatsApps prove that she is as blindsided as the rest of us as to Lee's movements. She is not in on it, whatever 'it' is.

'She wants anyone with information to contact her or the police with information that might help find him.' 

They added she wants to know Lee is safe and then can start 'asking him some serious questions'. 

Meanwhile, Lee's mum Trisha, 61, has given her first interview since his disappearance. 

The psychic medium said the family was concerned about his wellbeing after vanishing last week. 

When asked if she believed Katie's theory he had been kidnapped, she told the publication: 'I don't know, he could have been. I've not seen the video.

'I don't know the laws out there but I wouldn't have thought they'd use cables. Wouldn't they put handcuffs on?'

Trisha added she thought Katie was 'exploiting' the situation on social media but after her daughter spoke to the television personality, she can see how worried she is. 

A friend of Lee's mother added 'no one knows where Lee has gone' and she just wants him to be ok.  

It comes after the publication reported Lee has not been kidnapped as Katie feared and is instead squatting in a run-down villa in . 

He is said to be only talking to a few of his trusted network on a burner phone and 'frantically planning a route out of this ginormous hole he appears to have buried himself in'.