Katie Price has revealed her missing husband Lee Andrews has been tracked down in a prison in Dubai.
The reality star, 48, has revealed she spoke to him on a two-minute phone call from Al Awir prison on Wednesday morning, where Lee claimed he was being held on suspicion of espionage after being arrested on Wednesday, May 14.
It’s been two weeks since he disappeared from Katie’s life, with his last messages to her leading her to believe he had been ‘kidnapped’, after claiming he had been ‘arrested’ and was being taken to a ‘black site’.
As the former glamour model scrambled to figure out where her husband had gone, days later, Lee’s father claimed he was in prison – which Katie denied at the time.
Now, it has transpired that Lee’s father is the one who set up the phone call between husband and wife this morning, which was reportedly received from a prison phone box.
She announced to The Sun: ‘I have found him – he is alive, and he is ok.
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‘I told him how worried I had been and told him I loved him. It was very rushed, but he said the authorities out there thought he was a spy. I don’t know much more than that right now.’
It is understood Lee will be released on Monday after paying a four-figure fine.
Leading up to his arrest, Lee was meant to be flying to the UK to appear in a joint interview with Katie on Good Morning Britain – an appointment he never made.
Now, The Sun claims he had been attempting to keep a low profile and had even briefly moved out of his rental apartment and in with his father.
What is the punishment for espionage in Dubai?
In the UAE, the known punishment for espionage could be as severe as life imprisonment, as showcased in 2018 after the arrest of British academic Matthew Hedges.
The British national was arrested in Abu Dhabi, and a court found him guilty of ‘spying for or on behalf of the UK government’.
He was sentenced to prison for life but was pardoned by the nation’s president days later. In 2023, he claimed he was kept in handcuffs, in solitary confinement, and fed a cocktail of drugs, according to the BBC.
Everything Lee Andrews has been accused of since marrying Katie Price
Misleading claims of being a multi-millionaire business owner
When Katie named Lee as her new partner, he was selling himself as the CEO of Aura Group Future Urban Travel 2027 and an ‘investor in SpaceX Hybrid Fitness.’
His profile, which had 111k followers, was littered with photos of the entrepreneur in the gym and enjoying the high life in Dubai – also appearing to rub shoulders with Elon Musk and Kim Kardashian.
However, it was all later exposed as a farce – with no information about his company on its website, and his snaps with celebrities appearing to also be AI-generated.
Being banned from leaving Dubai
After meeting and marrying her new husband in Dubai, it came time for Katie to fly home to the UK – however her husband was unable to join her.
This was due to the fact that he’d allegedly served time in Dubai’s Al-Awir central prison for suspected fraud, for allegedly taking out a £200,000 mortgage in his ex-girlfriend’s name without her knowledge.
The UAW bans people facing criminal investigations from leaving the country, however Lee denied he was unable to return to the UK and said there must be some ‘wrong details’.
However, Katie later confirmed he was subjected to a ban, but didn’t clarify why.
Teasing a fake pregnancy
Just a few weeks into their relationship, both Katie and Lee teased they were expecting a baby. After Katie declared she was ‘having his child’ Lee wrote they were a ‘perfect couple soon to be triple’.
At one point, the mum of five even urged her followers to pay £2.99 to find out the results of a pregnancy test.
Despite the attempts to generate publicity, she then confirmed she was not pregnant.
Scamming a string of women
Days after Katie and Lee tied the knot, two of his exes accused him of being a ‘liar, narcissist and manipulator’.
Two months later, it was then reported he’d been begging women for money weeks before he married Katie.
His ex Alana, then shared a post on Instagram calling him the ‘Tinder Swindler’ and claimed multiple women had contacted her saying he’d tried to scam them out of money too.
‘Ghosting’ his wife
After Lee failed to return to the UK last week, Katie revealed she had concerns he’d been kidnapped and then reported him as a missing person.
However, it was then reported that Lee had actually ‘ghosted’ his wife and was ‘squatting in a slightly run-down villa’ in Dubai and using a burner phone.
The publication reported he was ‘frantically planning a route out of this ginormous hole he appears to have buried himself in’.
After his disappearance, his family filed a missing persons report to the British embassy in Dubai.
Just last week, Katie declared on her podcast that she was stepping back ‘for her sanity’ and leaving it in the hands of the police.
Still, in a last-ditch attempt to find him, it had been reported that she was contemplating ‘launching an international manhunt’ and even ‘flying to Dubai’ despite fears she too would be detained.
Shortly after, she also appeared in a video with friend Olivia Attwood, where the pair appeared to be joking about ‘missing husbands’.
Meanwhile, his ex, Alana Percival, has been making her own claims on social media, accusing him of being a ‘conman’ and lying to her about his whereabouts, including a ‘fake trip to the UK’ last winter.
Murkying the waters further have been a whole host of claims of online activity, including reports that he had been spotted online on Facebook and followed an account called ‘Biker Babe’ on Instagram.
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