After being so unexpectedly nice in the CBB house, we ask: who is the real Katie Price?

For years, Katie Price has lived by the motto, “Never underestimate the Pricey.” And now it looks like never a truer word has been spoken. Since 
her arrival in the Celebrity Big Brother house, Katie Price 
has confounded her critics 
by emerging not only as the housemate most likely to win, 
but also the nicest.

We’ll admit we were expecting 
a very different person to cross the threshold. The Katie Price we prefer to call Jordan, the girl who fires off sweary comments on Twitter and who can cut you dead with a single glare. Instead she’s being so nice that she’s even made friends with her nemesis Katie Hopkins. Call us suspicious, but how can we be sure this turnaround is genuine and that Jordan isn’t tricking us all?

TV presenter and long-time Jordan critic Carol McGiffin, a CBB housemate in 2013, is among those who remain unconvinced. “She’s so media savvy, and her popularity has waned so much 
in the past year or two, that she’s got to do something to keep the interest up,” she tells heat. “I think her being nice to everybody and friendly is totally calculated… More than anything, I find her boring. Talking about her exes 
– we know all about that, so just shut up and move on.”

Jordan, 36, only agreed to enter 
the house just days before her grand entrance – and was a bag 
of nerves beforehand, breaking down in tears moments before joining presenter Emma Willis on stage. “It’s been a long time since I last saw Kate as nervous as she was,” Katie’s brother Danny told us, with our insider adding, “The production team ordered in a Nando’s for her, but she literally couldn’t eat. She was really panicky and very nervous. She thought there would 
be boos.” Once in the house, Jordan immediately won over her fellow housemates, with Patsy Kensit commenting, “She’s really got her feet on the ground. She’s so chilled. She’s cool.”

Before long, the public appeared to be in agreement, too. However, as Carol McGiffin points out, Jordan did have the advantage 
of knowing how the housemates were coming across before she went in. By cosying up to Katie Hopkins, she aligned herself with the person being most warmly received on the outside. Clever? “She knew full well that the public opinion was changing about 
Katie Hopkins. Them being friends just doesn’t wash with me,” says Carol. “When she did her reality show with Peter, we 
all saw what she was like. She 
 just wasn’t very nice to him. She hasn’t got an ex-boyfriend who’s got a good word to say about her. 
I think she’s just great at going into reality shows and trying 
to make people like her. She’s 
an expert at it.”

But Jordan does have plenty 
of friends who insist she’s being genuine, including Union J’s Jaymi Hensley, who tells us, 
“The Kate I know and the one 
I love is the Kate we’re seeing. I’m so happy people are getting to see her. People are saying they can’t believe how different she is.” Jaymi, who struck up a friendship with Jordan when he appeared 
on The X Factor in 2012, says she’s nothing like the Jordan everyone thinks she is. “She’s a mother to five kids, a wife, she’s more grown up. She is so normal,” he tells us. Even Katie Hopkins, who publicly derided Jordan for naming her fifth child Bunny, seems won over after Jordan saved her from nomination for eviction. Writing in her newspaper column last week, she said, “I have been saved from impending doom by Pricey. 
This was unlikely considering 
my previous form regarding 
her terrible perfume range and menagerie of husbands.” She even claimed Jordan had asked her to write a speech for her and Kieran’s wedding-vow renewal.

But brother Danny tells us Jordan may have other reasons for cosying up to Katie Hopkins. “She hates confrontation and will do whatever she can to avoid it by getting along with everyone,” he says. “I know she wants to raise 
a few points about what Katie [Hopkins] has said in the past. 
She will find her moment and when she does, it will be when 
it’s least expected.”

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