Katie Price's bust-up with teen model who won her reality TV show
Amy Willerton says winning Signed By Katie has turned her life upside down... for the worse
STANDING with Katie Price in a matching black catsuit, Amy Willerton faced a barrage of flashbulbs and savoured the moment she’d dreamed about. The 19-year-old wannabe had just beaten 10,000 others to be crowned winner of Katie’s reality TV show, aimed at finding Britain’s hottest young model.
The prize included a modelling contract, mentoring from Katie, a front page on OK! magazine, the keys to a Range Rover like Katie’s for a year and a luxury holiday in the Maldives. Little wonder Amy was smiling so happily as the cameras captured mentor and protege in identical outfits. But now, just a few weeks later, her joy has turned to bitterness. In an exclusive interview, Amy says winning Sky Living’s Signed By Katie has turned her life upside down... for the worse.
She claims that after the TV show flopped badly – one episode won just 130,000 viewers – many of the promises were broken. And, despite Katie’s management team insisting that they were working tirelessly to make her famous Amy has now refused to sign a contract with the star’s modelling company.
That snub has left Katie, 33, fuming and she’s vowed never to work with Amy again, saying people think she’s an “arrogant, stuck-up fake”.
“I never expected overnight fame,” Amy said yesterday. “But I don’t believe the promises from Katie or her team were kept. “I gave up my job, was encouraged to turn down a place at university and had to put my life on hold.”
During filming of the show, Katie pledged: “The winner will get a fast-track ticket to stardom. They’ll get a modelling contract, calendars, foreign trips and red-carpet access.” When Katie appeared with Amy in TV interviews, she said: “She’s got the look, the body, everything... she’ll have her own perfume, her own TV show. In most of these shows the judges just walk away. But with this I’m in their lives and I’m managing them.”
However, since the winning show was screened last November, Amy says she’s had hardly any mentoring, the modelling jobs haven’t properly materialised and the matching Range Rover isn’t possible because she doesn’t have the £10,000 needed to insure it. And when she rang up about the holiday to the Maldives it had suddenly turned into a trip to Marbella. Heartbroken Amy says the experience has soured her dreams of being a model, which started when she was crowned Miss Bristol at the age of 15.
Last June she was busy making plans to go to Cardiff University to read media studies after getting two As and a B in her A-levels. But her plans changed one afternoon as she left work at a clothing store in Bristol. “A guy tapped my shoulder and said they were holding auditions for a new show by Katie Price,” she says.
“It sounded fantastic. I admired Kate. I’d read her book about how she cared for her disabled son Harvey. My brother is severely handicapped too so I had empathy for her.” Amy wowed the judges at her audition and was eventually picked for the final dozen. She moved to a house in London with the 11 other hopefuls. I quit my job, gave up my university place and dropped out of Miss England,” she says. “I put life on hold, but the show promised to change my future.”
PARTYING
When Amy won the title in July she was told it would change her life. “Everyone from the crew ran up screaming, ‘You are going to be famous’.”
Amy had a meeting that evening with Katie and bosses from her modelling firm, Black Sheep Management, run by her brother Daniel and her manager Andrew Antonio. “Katie and Andrew said, ‘Amy, you will be busy straight away’. I asked if there would be time for uni and they said, ‘No, you need to be 100 per cent committed’. “They said that even though there were a few months before the show hit TV screens they’d find me work.”
But then Katie took Amy out partying with producers and other contestants. “The actor Matt Lucas came by and Katie said, ‘Say hello to the winner of my show’. But as I turned round I heard her say, ‘But I actually wanted it to be him’, pointing to rival contestant Rylan. It made me feel uneasy. I wondered if Katie really liked me.”
Amy was told to return to Bristol that night, and for days she heard nothing. “Eventually, after a week, I got one call from Andrew. He then came round, sat down with me, my mum, my dad. He said it was going to be so exciting.”
Katie’s managers say they offered her photo shoots, including one with a lads mag, but they didn’t work out. Amy rang Katie’s management team every day to find out what was happening, but says she rarely heard back. “They kept saying when the show airs things would change.”
Meanwhile, she survived on handouts from her parents and her savings. When the show *finally appeared, it flopped. Amy started to worry about her future but producers kept reassuring her that the minute her winning *episode was screened “life would go crazy”. “I just wanted what had been promised... my mentoring with Katie to start.”
But the next time Amy saw Katie was on November 28 when they appeared on Daybreak to talk about her winning the show. “The night before I got a call from Katie’s managers saying, ‘Pack a bag, you are in London for two weeks’. You’re staying with Katie. “But when I turned up at Daybreak, Katie hardly spoke to me. When we finished she said, ‘Right, I’m off, see you later’. I phoned the management team and was told to head back to Bristol. I was so upset.
“The next day Andrew rang and said, ‘Great news, Amy, I’ve got you an exclusive interview... with the Bristol Evening Post. I said, ‘I’m not being funny but I used to be Miss Bristol. I could get an interview with them any time’.”
By the time she was offered a contract last November she refused to sign. To make matters worse the official “launch” of Amy with Katie, planned for December, was held back. Amy was given £1,500 by management to buy her family Christmas presents but she still hadn’t received her prizes.
“When I asked about the car they told me it would cost £10,000 to insure. I was given a number to ring about the holiday, but when the man answered he said it wasn’t the Maldives it was Marbella. And when I enquired about OK!, they said Katie is having ‘issues’ with the magazine.”
Despite her concerns Amy attended the photo-shoot with Katie in January, when they wore matching outfits aimed at looking like Sandy from Grease.” The photocall was a disaster. The small number of magazines who covered it mocked Katie and her new “mini-me”. Other jobs and contracts never materialised.
Matters came to a head in a meeting between Amy and Black Sheep bosses in February. “I got upset,” she says. When Katie found out about the meeting she fired off an email, saying: “I’m not interested in working with Amy. Amy needs to understand the jobs I have been on with her people found her arrogant and stuck-up and fake.”
But Amy says: “I’m so angry. When I won, I thought life would change. It has... but for the worse. My life’s been turned upside down. I’ve had enough of Katie and don’t want anything more to do with her or her team.”
Sources close to Katie said last night: “Amy was never promised a holiday in the Maldives – she was promised a luxury holiday and the only place available was Marbella. Her management did try and sort out the Range Rover - but they couldn’t find anyone to insure her. And she was never promised an OK! front cover.”
