Katie Price’s ex-husband Kieran Hayler has publicly apologized to his former stepdaughter Princess Andre following her statement expressing a wish for a happier childhood.

The 38-year-old personal trainer shared with the Daily Mail his sorrow over Princess’s recent revelations. At 18, she opened up about her most challenging experience being her mother Katie’s tumultuous marriage breakdown with Kieran, who confessed to infidelity.

In her new ITV2 show The Princess Diaries, Princess reminisced about witnessing her mother’s subsequent struggles after the split. She described Katie as ‘heartbroken’, which sparked a difficult period involving drug addiction, PTSD, and suicidal tendencies.

Princess reflected: ‘He was part of our lives for five years, becoming close to us. We loved him, and his departure marked a downward spiral. My mum’s heartache manifested in deep struggles, though it was understandable in her situation.’

Kieran has now expressed regret over his affairs with Katie’s former best friend Jane Pountney and their ex-nanny Nikki Brown, acknowledging the inability to shield Junior, now 20, and Princess, Peter Andre’s children, from the turmoil his actions caused.

Kieran, who has two children, Jett, 12, and Bunny, 11, with Katie, described vacating their shared home with Junior and Princess as ‘one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.’ He conveyed deep apologies to the children for not better protecting them through the upheaval.

He said: ‘It makes me feel so sad. I am as sorry as I can be to Princess witnessing us go through such a horrible separation. Leaving them was one of the hardest things I ever had to do.

‘I would love to apologise and really know how she felt during that time when mine and Kate’s marriage broke down.

‘It’s difficult isn’t it but I would like to reach out. I would love to support Princess and when I have time I will sit down and watch her show.

‘Whenever any marriage breaks down and one parent has to leave the house, it rocks those children’s worlds, it’s really sad. I went into my marriage wanting a happily ever after, no one goes into a marriage wanting it to break down and end but ultimately as much as it impacted the adults, it disrupted and affected the children.

‘When I left, it wasn’t that was it, end of, point blank, I always made sure I kept in touch.

‘It’s hard, when they’re your stepchildren, naturally that bond disappears over time, you have played a massive part in their life but Princess is 18 now, life moves on and you no longer play a role in their lives anymore.

‘But when I look back, I believe I was the best stepfather that I could have been to them. I was respectful to Pete, I hope that’s how they see me as well.’

Katie and Kieran were married from January 2013 to March 2021 when the couple’s divorce was finalised but their relationship only lasted five years. 

In 2017, Katie spoke on ITV’s Loose Women about the end of her marriage to Kieran, saying: ‘As everyone knows, I caught him having an affair with our nanny, for a year, sleeping with her in my house, so here I am again.’

She added: ‘My kids are older, they know what’s going on. He’s hurt me once and I don’t deserve it, it’s happened again.’ 

In the aftermath of their split, Katie suffered a mental breakdown, bankruptcy, and turned to alcohol and drugs as a way of coping.

She received a 16-week suspended sentence in 2021 after flipping her car while under the influence of cocaine and alcohol, later apologising for her actions. 

Katie has claimed one of the reasons she ended up bankrupt was because her three ex-husbands, which include Pete, Alex Reid and Kieran, were all ‘on her case’ but she shut herself off to the world, which only made situations worse.

In 2023, she said: ‘When you’re having a breakdown and you’re suicidal, you shut the world off. You don’t talk to anyone, you don’t answer your phone, you don’t open your letters, and before you know it you’ll have a bailiff at your door. Then the work stops because your head’s not there to do it.’ 

Speaking about the way his marriage ended, Kieran said: ‘I regret it, of course I do.

‘The trouble is with me is I have never spoken about the things that happened in the relationship to make me behave the way I did.

‘A lot of that is out there and it’s one sided, I have never spoken honestly and truthfully about why those things happened and that’s because I am trying to move on and protect the children, it’s not just Junior and Princess, it’s Jett and Bunny too. 

‘When it comes to children and adult situations, they should be kept private and as away from the children as much as possible. But that was very difficult because our lives were exposed publicly.

‘That was one of the hardest parts about it, I personally wasn’t able to protect them and shield them from that. 

‘Look, it’s difficult. Of course, I regret the way things happened but at the same time those are issues I never put around the children, they were put around the children by everything becoming so public. No one could get away from it and it gets dragged up all the time, which is really difficult for the children involved.’

Kieran moved on from his marriage to Katie with Michelle Pentecost who he was engaged to wed until last October when the couple announced they had separated.

They share son Apollo, three, who they continue to co-parent, while Kieran says he owes being in Junior and Princess’s lives for his ability to be a good father today.

He said: ‘I loved them like they were my own children. I really did care, and I was invested in both of their lives.

‘I did a lot for them, I did the school run, I would take Junior to football, me and Princess would go out riding on the horses, it was a big lifestyle change for them when I left.

‘I had a good rapport with Pete, there was never any friction, if something had happened like at school I would ring up Pete, if one of the kids were naughty and I felt as their stepfather I couldn’t tell them off, I would call Pete.

‘It was the first time I had children in my life. I have to thank them really because they moulded me into the dad that I have become today.’

Kieran says he saw Princess at a celebrity event in December and it wasn’t awkward between the pair, revealing: ‘We spoke to each other, I gave her a cuddle, and I would be exactly the same with Junior. Nothing ended badly between me and the children.’ 

Last week ahead of The Princess Diaries airing on ITV2, Katie expressed her upset and distress over not filming for the show, claiming she offered to be part of her daughter’s TV debut but was rejected.

Princess is managed by The Can Group, the agency behind her father Peter’s success, and Katie believes they have purposely excluded her from having any say in her daughter’s career over their view she’s ‘trash.’  

On her podcast, she said: ‘I am very, very, very upset that Princess has signed with them when she was 16 I wasn’t asked to look at any contracts so I don’t know what contract Princess has signed because it’s all to do with that side.

‘People need to realise with that management and Pete I am very disrespected as a mum, very disregarded, in fact, I am nothing to them and never will be.’

It has led to feud claims between Katie and Princess, who told the Daily Mail last week that there is ‘no rift’ with her mother. 

When asked whether he agrees that Katie should have been kept out of the series, Kieran said: ‘This is Princess’s career and it’s down to her management and the TV company on what they want, it’s her show, so that’s how it works.

‘Princess is credible and needs to take her own path, rather than follow her mum, it’s down to her to create her own pathway.

‘Princess and Junior are so respectable, Princess is well spoken, she’s a really kindhearted young woman and it’s great to see that and know that I had a part in their upbringing, it makes me proud.’

Kieran says he has been attempting to rebuild his life following his divorce and split from Michelle, attending weekly therapy sessions to understand where his past relationships went wrong.

And has Princess speaking on his former marriage brought back traumatic memories for Kieran, who now lives a quiet life away from the cameras?

He said: ‘I have done six months’ worth of therapy and I am past all of this now. For me, I am quite comfortable being able to watch this and know the reasons why I did things. 

‘Maybe that wasn’t the right thing to do at the time but now I know why I did it and how I can be better going forward. I’m talking about the mistakes I made in the relationship…

‘It’s good for men to talk, they don’t talk enough after coming out of relationships and marriages, a lot of blame goes towards the man but actually there’s always two people and many reasons for why a relationship breaks down.’