These days, the 1990s seem to be regarded – especially by people too young to remember them – as a prelapsarian idyll. In Britain, London swung again to the sound of Britpop. In America, good-looking twentysomethings lived cheaply in large apartments, wisecracking and hugging their way through solvable problems. And all without the tyranny of social media.
A rather less rosy picture, though, emerged in the opening episode of the four-part Katie Price: Nothing to Hide, in which Price added to her nine autobiographies and numerous documentaries and/or reality shows by deciding to ‘reflect on my life’ for the first time. The result was both a revealing social history and not unlike a novel by Martin Amis at his most blackly comic.
In Price’s defence, there’s plenty to reflect on. Eager for fame from her early teens, she soon realised that attracting male attention was the key to getting it. Luckily, this was something she loved doing, beginning with looking hot in Brighton clubs. Her big break – those Gen-Z fans of the 1990s might find hard to believe – was appearing topless at 18 in a national newspaper that sold millions of copies a day. ‘The excitement was ridiculous,’ said Price; but, in what became something of a mantra, ‘I wanted more.’
