KATIE Price’s husband Lee Andrews made shock claims about his Dubai bust-up with Kerry Katona’s boyfriend Paolo, The Sun can reveal.
Back in February, we revealed Lee threw punches at Paolo as the two couples’ first meeting turned sour.
Initially, things looked rosy as newlywed Katie, 48, introduced close pal Kerry, 45, and her businessman boyfriend to Lee, 43, with smiley beach club photos appearing on social media.
But the good vibes were short-lived as, when Paolo, 34, fists were aimed his way.
However, speaking in a voice note prior to his recent arrest, Lee insisted he there was no bust-up and accused the couple of blaming him to distract from their own problems.
He said: “I’d like to shed some light on the Kerry Katona and Paolo item, because it’s not how it reads. There was no punch-up, things like that.
“To be honest, they had words and they had a bust-up, but they seemed to have put it on me.
“Kerry was quite rude to me on the day, to be fair, but then they were fine because they’d been drinking a lot, amongst other things, so I can shed some storyline on that, if it helps.”
But a source has contradicted Lee’s claim and backed the account of one of the onlookers who watched the situation unfold.
They said: “This is yet another example of Lee being loose with the truth to suit his own agenda. The reality of what happened is the opposite of his account.
“Tensions came to a head after Paolo stepped in to play peacekeeper with Lee and Katie and the rest is well documented.
“Both Paolo and Kerry moved on and have no desire to speak anymore with Lee, but there is no ill-feeling towards Katie. It’s a difficult situation.”
A spokesman for Kerry declined to comment. Lee also had no comment.
Katie and Lee were reunited over the weekend following his release from a Dubai’s Al-Awir prison for a ‘private civil matter’.
After greeting each other with a big hug they went to Vox Dubai, an outdoor rooftop cinema, to watch a World Cup football game.
Tonight, Lee took to Instagram to break his silence on his month-long absence from public life, claiming he’d been taken by men at gunpoint and transferred to a ‘black site’ where he had no use of his phone.
He said he was suspected of espionage because of his proximity to the border while tensions were high in the region in light of the Iran-US war.
Katie previously said she had some serious questions to ask Lee after sitting down with his ex-wife Dina Taji, who accused him of applying for a £200,000 mortgage in her name without her knowledge.
Prior to their meeting, The Sun’s Clemmie Moodie revealed Lee conned her out of a £1,000 investment, which he’d promised would make three times its value in just one week.
He also previously claimed to have put a bid forward for a majority stake in Chelsea Football Club and to have secretly flown to the UK where he met Katie’s kids, something her own rep denied at the time.
While another of his exes, Crystal Janke, previously told The Sun she’d been hoodwinked into putting £123,000 in one of Lee’s schemes on the promise of getting £1million back – but received nothing in return, not even her initial investment.
