Katie Price breaks silence as former dressage teacher to replace Charlotte Dujardin in Olympic team
26 July 2024, 15:04
Katie Price denied the soon-to-be Olympian played any role in her split from Peter Andre.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Katie Price’s dressage instructor is set to take Charlotte Dujardin's place at the upcoming Paris Olympics after the gold medal winner was banned amid a horse whipping scandal.
The six-time Olympic medalist pulled out of the upcoming Paris games after a video emerged of her repeatedly whipping a horse.
The shocking footage saw Dujardin banned from taking part in the 2024 Olympics, leaving an open spot in Great Britain’s dressage team.
This position is set to be filled by reservist Becky Moody.
That means Katie Price's former trainer Andrew Gould will be called up as the new reservist.
Reacting to his Team GB call up, Andrew Gould wrote: "Not a post I was expecting to write and under these circumstances but as you may have heard I’ve been called up to be the fourth member of the GB team.
"It’s an absolute privilege and an honour to be given the trust and responsibility to be a member of the team.
"I will do everything I can to support the team whilst gaining as much experience of this time as possible.
"Indigro is feeling the best he’s ever felt and is ready to face whatever comes his way.
"Now it’s time to come together and support Team GB."
Reacting to the news, Katie Price denied Gould played any role in her separation from Peter Andre.
She told Jeremy Vine: "I never, ever had an affair with him. We said that at the time. You do spend a lot of time together [when you're training]."
Despite the scandal surrounding their friendship at the time, Katie had only positives things to say about Andrew.
She added: "It’s brilliant that he’s making it into the Olympics team, he was the guy who taught me dressage."
She went on to say she is no longer in touch with the soon-to-be Olympian.
She said: "I only found out [about the Olympics] yesterday, I haven’t seen Andrew for years. I think he got remarried, he had another child... my best friend does his wife's hair.
"You just sort of move on. I’m sure if I see him, I’ll wish him luck as he deserves it."
Read more: Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin ‘whipped horse 24 times like an elephant in the circus’, claims lawyer
Mr Gould, and his horse Indigro, are joining teammates Carl Hester, Charlotte Fry and recently added Becky Moody.
The dressage star found himself at the centre of Katie Price’s divorce in 2009 after Peter Andre claimed the pair had shared an affair.
Writing in her 2010 book You Only Live Once, Katie opened up about how her friendship with Andrew impacted her marriage.
"Pete met Andrew and everything changed," she wrote.
"He had met Polly and Andrew briefly when they both came round to the house once before we went off to a horse show, and even in that brief meeting - which was filmed for our reality series - I got a bad vibe from Pete, but thought maybe I was imagining it.
"I admit we were both jealous in our marriage... Jealousy is a poison, a cancer, and once it starts growing out of control, it can destroy everything."
Charlotte Dujardin seen whipping horse in video on GMB
Speaking outside the couple's home, Ms Dujardin's fiancé, Dean Wyatt Golding said the allegation had "all come out of the blue".
"I can't say anything beyond Charlotte's statement," he told the Mail.
"All we can do is wait and see what happens."
When asked if he knew who had released the video and how it had been shared, Mr Golding said: "No, we have no idea."
Charlotte is obviously cooperating with the equestrian authorities for now."
The six-time Olympic medallist decided to pull out of all competition while the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) investigates the video, which was taken four years ago.
The 39-year-old dressage medallist is also under investigation from the British Equestrian Federation and British Dressage.
