Lee

KATIE Price has revealed what husband Lee Andrews told her on the phone from prison as she admitted “time is running out”.

The Sun revealed yesterday that self-proclaimed businessman Lee must pay a fine of more than £100,000 to be released from jail.

The ex-glamour model, 48, is thought to have believed her hubby could walk free in Dubai this week if he could stump up a four-figure fine.

But after she spoke to him, it emerged he “needs a six-figure sum” instead.

And now Katie has shared her fears for Lee, saying she was worried he would not be released anytime soon.

Revealing details of her last phone conversation with Lee, Katie said: “I’m absolutely knackered, it’s the second morning because I spoke to Lee yesterday and he wants me to go to the Al Awir prison because he’s given me permission to get all his phones, his belongings.

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TO THE RESCUE

Katie Price breaks silence from Dubai as she reveals bid to free Lee Andrews

“So I’m going there now.

“I still need to hear back from his lawyer if I can get a visit to see him.

“It’s Wednesday and I go on Friday… time is running out.”

Katie admitted she was now able to reach her husband because she had a Dubai number for him in prison.

“I’m feeling knackered today, I’m excited, but excited for what? Because I don’t know if I’m seeing Lee but at least I now know he can ring me, I’ve got the Dubai number so at least I know he can ring me,” she added.

“So let’s go to the prison again.”

The previous day, Katie posted a clip while at a hair salon in Dubai as she told fans she was “all glam, just to go to bed and chill”.

She said: “The time is half five, I’m going to go back to the hotel, get in bed and watch telly all night until tomorrow morning.

“That’s so bad, coming to Dubai and I’m going to bed at half six in the evening, that’s shocking.

“I could go and party, have a drink, but I’m happy to go back to the hotel for a cup of tea in bed.”

Former I’m A Celebrity star Katie flew out on Monday and has visited the notorious Al Awir Central Prison several times, though her only contact with her hubby is via phone.

A source told The Sun yesterday: “Katie is desperately trying to get Lee out of prison.

“Despite everything that’s gone on, Lee is her husband and Katie wants to get him out and get the answers she so badly needs.

“She has been to the prison a number of times now, including going there today, to try to get the paperwork sorted to secure his release.

“To be released, Lee will have to pay over £100,000.

“He is confident he can get the cash and has assured Katie she won’t need to pay anything.”

Lee, who mysteriously disappeared last month, is said to be in jail over a civil matter.

Mum of five Katie last night confirmed she was trying to get him out, and admitted it was exhausting.

She said in a social media video: “I have got to go to courts, prison and the police ­station.

“Not visiting him in prison but ‘the’ prison.

“Who knows what today will bring.

“I am so tired.”

Katie married Nottingham-born Andrews, 42, in Dubai in January, just days after meeting him.

Prior to his disappearance, he told her he was flying to the UK to go on Good Morning Britain for their first joint interview.

However, the UAE government had banned him from leaving the country for allegedly forging a signature on a six-figure loan.

Katie then feared he had been kidnapped after he disappeared.

Subsequently, she said Andrews called her to say he was in jail, apparently for spying.

Officials later confirmed to The Sun his incarceration was linked to a “private civil matter”.

Any potential release may not be straightforward, according to a source last night.

Three weeks on from when Lee went ‘missing’ after failing to arrive in the UK for a joint interview with Katie, here is what we know.

Last night Katie shared a video filmed inside a car where she discussed the effects of CBD oil. The view from the car appeared to show that the star was warmer climes in a foreign country, which would line up with the recent snaps taken of Katie at Gatwick Airport with a huge suitcase and her engagement ring firmly on her finger.

She revealed on Facebook that she is set to travel to Dubai to try and visit him in prison, but added: “I don’t know if I’m going to see Lee or I’m not when I get there and it’s a really weird feeling.”

Lee told Katie he was in Al Awir prison, also known as “Dubai Alcatraz” in a brief phone call last week, as he claims he was detained after being mistaken for a spy. It has not been confirmed by Dubai authorities that he is in prison, or was in fact charged with espionage.

While he has allegedly been in prison, he has unfollowed and followed Katie – the only person he follows on Instagram. His account also followed a woman dubbed “biker babe” who used to be on a millionaire matchmaker site, but she appears to have ultimately blocked his account.

The phone call about Lee’s whereabouts came after he’d been “missing” for almost two weeks, with Katie telling fans that her husband had been “kidnapped” and she had to get Interpol involved after as he was being taken to a “black site”.

Since this ordeal began in May, Katie has faced criticism for using Lee’s alleged arrest as a PR stunt to promote her CBD oil collaboration and her music. She has also been met with sympathy from fans who believe she had no involvement and is being “conned” by her husband.

AFTER returning to Instagram Katie Price has found herself with one less loyal follower – her husband Lee Andrews.

Katie was previously left fuming after her account with a whopping 2.6 million followers was removed from the platform.

The ban came at a tumultuous time for the former glamour model, following a man hunt for Lee, who is currently thought to be jailed in Dubai’s Al Awir prison.

But after regaining access to her page earlier today, she was met with a mystery.

Katie’s conman hubby Lee has hit the unfollow button on the star, something that usually points towards trouble in paradise.

Lee now follows nobody over on the app.

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Things between the pair have certainly been a rollercoaster these past few weeks as she claimed to have told him he was the “most hated man in Britain” over the phone.

The reality TV legend told fans last week that she and Lee had a two-minute phone call from which he dialled in from a prison call box.

Lee claimed he’d been detained on suspicion of spying but that lie was quickly debunked.

Authorities confirmed to us he was NOT being held over spying charges and we understand he’s behind bars over claims relating to a private, civil matter.

Lee, who has “three phones” and bragged about being an “arms dealer,” is due for release today but must pay a four-figure fine.

The self-confessed “businessman” has certainly fuelled speculation on his relationship with Katie after savagely unfollowing her.

She was furious with Lee when he “made her look a d**k” after failing to show up for their joint GMB interview but this could be the ultimate betrayl.

Podcast host Katie had her Instagram account taken away over the weekend due to her flashing her boob in one post, alongside a flurry of promotions for CBD products.

Meta, the company behind the social media giant, removed her entire profile as it investigated.

Execs are understood to have analysed her posts and stories, and found no wrongdoing, hence why her profile has now returned.

LEE Andrews’ lies, mistruths and mystery disappearance have captivated the nation following his flash wedding to Katie Price in January.

Accusations of fraud, gaslighting and emotional abuse have been levelled at him by ex-partners in recent months, all of who fell under his smooth-talking spell and promises of a happy future and financial riches.

Back in March, I became the first newspaper journalist to interview Lee following his emergence as Katie’s new man.

I held out little hope of it taking place when my initial request via WhatsApp was met with weeks of silence.

But then, out of the blue, Lee replied that he was keen to chat and to quash the ‘lies’ that had been spread about him.

I believe he was either that confident in his powers of persuasion that he could brazenly talk himself out of the numerous question marks around his lavish lifestyle and career, or that he viewed me as a useful idiot who could be hoodwinked into washing his tarnished reputation — perhaps a combination of the two.

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We set a date to talk the following week, but when the time came Lee revealed he was struggling with illness and would need to reschedule.

The interview was then postponed twice more with Lee still under the weather and, at this stage, it felt like I was being strung along, destined for the same fate as the Good Morning Britain producers who tried to land him for a TV interview months later.

To my surprise, he eventually made it onto the Zoom call on Friday, March 26, speaking from inside a Dubai branch of Caffé Nero.

Tanned and with salt and pepper stubble, he wore a baseball cap and T-shirt and sounded like someone coping with the last remnants of a cold.

I found him to be amiable, relaxed and open to being grilled on subjects that I thought would make him uneasy.

Off the bat I asked if he was a fantasist and compulsive liar, which he dismissed with a chuckle, telling me the claims were “comical and spin”.

For over an hour we went through everything from his dodgy CV, which he claimed was the result of errors from an unnamed personal assistant, his desire to start a family with Katie and plans for a lavish second wedding, his ability to speak multiple languages (with some muddling examples) as well as serious allegations from his ex-partners, which Lee likened to “barking dogs”.

There was also lots of business talk, full of wordy jargon that I can only assume was designed to impress and baffle someone not au fait with the workings of a cutting edge tech firm.

At the end of it all, we thanked each other and said our goodbyes.

The following day, the story ran in the paper with the humorous tag line: “I don’t really like liars myself. I do everything with honesty (just don’t look too closely at his CV).”

It was perfectly befitting of the ridiculousness of the story at the time, before even more ludicrous claims came to light including Lee’s attempt to buy Chelsea Football Club and boasts about being an international arms dealer.

But I expected Lee might not see it the same way I did and the next day I was proved right when he messaged me to say: “I don’t appreciate the pictures your edit team have used or the way the article has been written.”

I politely explained that we had a duty to examine the various claims against him, that a light touch of light humour was to be expected and that there was no malice in the framing.

His follow up surprised me.

Rather than pushing back, or at least further pleading his innocence on the accusations about his wealth and past relationships, Lee reiterated that his biggest issue was with his looks.

He simply said: “I don’t like the photo at all.”

The photos in question were a selection of unedited grabs from the Zoom call, a fair reflection on Lee through the course of the interview.

What struck me at the time, and even more so now in light of his disappearance and ghosting of wife Katie, is how his visual portrayal seemingly mattered more than any harm caused to others by his actions.

It’s no secret, Lee is fixated on his appearance; his numerous photoshopped pics have gone viral time and again.

The pictures we used took that editing power away from him and the reality appeared to hurt.

In other videos on social media he can be heard referencing his looks, from his hair to his chiselled body, and commenting about filters — or the lack thereof — to ‘prove’ he’s not fake.

He also took great pains to portray himself as a wealthy businessman with links to Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk, years after his sustainable vehicle company was quietly dissolved, which he continues to insist isn’t the case.

Further interactions between us saw him insist others simply couldn’t understand the workings of his complex world.

Optics are king with Lee and it seems he’s willing to let real feelings fall by the wayside as long as he is presented as the handsome, wealthy success story he’s so desperate to be — a mindset that could have heartbreaking consequences for Katie.

May 31 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s main opposition People Power Party has filed a police complaint against President Lee Jae-myung, accusing him of violating election law by exposing a marked ballot during early voting for the June 3 local elections.

People Power Party Chairman Jang Dong-hyeok and other party officials visited the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on Saturday to file the complaint against Lee and officials from the National Election Commission who were present at the polling station. Yonhap reported the complaint alleged violations of the Public Official Election Act.

The controversy began Friday when Lee stepped out of a voting booth during early voting and asked an election official whether a partially stamped ballot would still be valid. The opposition party said Lee’s handling of the marked ballot violated the principle of secret voting and the election law provision barring disclosure of a marked ballot.

Jang said Lee’s action could not be dismissed as a simple procedural mistake.

“This is not about one person,” Jang said. “It is about protecting the law and the principles of elections.”

The People Power Party also raised concerns about Lee’s public appearances ahead of the local elections, including visits to traditional markets, arguing they could violate restrictions on election involvement by public officials.

The party also accused election officials at the polling station of failing to take proper action after the ballot was allegedly exposed, saying they should face allegations under election law and possible dereliction of duty.

The National Election Commission previously said Lee did not leave the polling station and did not intentionally expose the ballot, meaning the incident did not constitute a legal violation. The commission also said Lee returned to the booth and completed voting after receiving guidance from officials.

The ruling Democratic Party rejected the opposition’s claims, saying Lee had merely asked an election official to confirm whether the stamp mark was valid.

The party said Lee did not reveal support for any candidate and accused the People Power Party of turning a minor incident into a political offensive before election day.

The dispute has added to the political tension surrounding South Korea’s local elections, which are being closely watched as an early test of public support for Lee’s government.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260601010009198

ANGELINA Jolie’s ex Jonny Lee Miller has found love once more.

The 53-year-old is romancing a 27-year-old Pilates teacher with the couple having enjoyed a sun-soaked holiday together.

Actor Jonny was married to Angelina in the late 90s for three years before the pair’s split.

But now, according to the Mail, he has been secretly loved-up once again for almost a year.

The publication reports that Jonny and glam Manuela Diago have been dating since June 2025.

Earlier this month, he shared a loved-up snap of them on Instagram as they attended a pal’s wedding.

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Angelina’s ex has had his eye on his new flame for some time – liking her social media content as far back as October 2024.

In addition, several of her snaps seem to be taken in Jonny’s New York abode.

The couple also holidayed in Malta in March – two months before news of their romance became public.

The Sun has reached out to Jonny for comment.

Jonny’s best-known romance was with Angelina.

They married in 1996 but split 18 months later and went on to formally divorce.

Despite splitting, they have remained relatively close and even sparked romantic reunion rumours in 2021.

That year, they were spotted on several outings together.

Around the time, there were reports he had also begun to bond with two of her sons – Pax and Knox.

Meanwhile, between 2008 and 2018, Jonny was married to Michele Hicks and the pair have a 17-year-old son, Buster.

IN just three days, Katie Price’s husband Lee Andrews is due to be released from Dubai’s hell-hole Al Awir prison.

But the news of his imminent return to freedom has emboldened the women who have been caught up in his web of lies and deceit – and now they’re determined to see him locked up for good.

Over the past five months, I have spoken to the women who have survived Andrews, and their extraordinary stories are chilling.

From financial fraud on a life-changing scale to even more shocking allegations, the women painted a terrifying picture of the man Katie chose to marry just weeks after meeting him earlier this year.

For months, the women have shared evidence with The Sun – and the relevant police authorities – in the hope that the law will catch up with Andrews.

Together they stood firm as he desperately tried to smear their reputations, telling me in a long and rambling voice note that one of the women was disturbed and had spent time inside a “mental institution”.

He claimed they were fantasists, liars and angrily declared: “I know you’re a lady and everything, but women can be very harsh.”

I didn’t believe a word he said to me then, and I still don’t now.

But the patience of the women involved is understandably wearing thin.

His arrest in Dubai on a civil matter has, they tell me, been for Andrews just a brief taste of what they hope is to come.

Justice for these women, however, will be a war that will not be easily won.

“Lee is a dangerous man, and the authorities need to act,” one of the women tells me from their home in the US.

“All of the women Lee has conned in the past have come together in a group, and we are determined to fight to get justice.

“It does feel incredibly hopeless at times. No one in power seems to be properly acting. But we’re standing together, and we will do everything we can to make the police act.”

Criminal complaints have been lodged against Andrews by one woman with Hertfordshire Police.

Another of his victims, businesswoman Crystal Janke, reported an alleged theft of £123,000 to cops in America.

The uphill battle they face is the fact that Andrews resides in Dubai and is unable to leave due to a travel ban.

Andrews, ultimately, is able to dodge culpability because of where he is.

Hertfordshire Police confirmed to me they had handed the complaints filed to them to cops in Dubai because the alleged incidents happened in the UAE.

These allegations, to add, are incredibly serious.

They need to see him hauled in for questioning.

But so far, the police there have seemingly failed to act in any way to investigate Andrews, let alone arrest him.

The financial fraud complaint made to cops against Andrews in the US by Crystal is also dangling in the ether.

The police confirmed they can only act against Andrews if he lands on US soil.

And let’s be honest, Andrews isn’t going to be leaving Dubai anytime soon.

From the number of phone calls I had in the days leading up to Andrews’ arrest, the women who have joined forces to try and bring the con-artist to justice are not alone in their plight.

Andrews is alleged to owe vast sums of money to several people in Dubai.

Each individual wants him taken to task, and no one more so than the women whose lives he has irrevocably damaged in one way or another.

“We see ourselves as survivors of Lee, not victims,” one woman tells me.

“But to say the slow progress by the police in Dubai is frustrating is an understatement.

“The complaints are racking up, and nothing is being done.

“Some of us have even gone to the lengths of contacting the police when we know where Lee is and pleading with them to arrest him.

“Repeatedly, we have said, he is at this location, he is wanted for this, please act. And nothing ever seems to happen.

“We have no idea what else to do, but once he is out, we are going to carry on alerting the police, and we won’t stop until they act.”

After he was arrested and sent to the Al Awir prison, authorities confirmed to The Sun he had been apprehended on a private civil matter.

It proved once again that Andrews is a devious liar – after he told Katie he had been arrested for espionage.

“Lee saying he was arrested for spying is nothing new,” one of the women explained to me.

“It’s a claim directly out of his conman playbook.

“He’s said to everyone in this group at some point that he worked for the secret services. He bragged about being in MI5 in the UK.

“Lee would just tell so many lies. He told Katie he was an international arms dealer, too.

“By this point, we don’t think Lee would know what the truth is – even if he slapped him around the face.”

Previously, Andrews denied every claim made against him by the women who spoke out against him.

In the face of the weight of evidence they provided me with, including their bank statements and correspondence with their relevant police forces, Andrews stood firm and tried to paint them as scorned fantasists.

These women are nothing of the sort.

And I, along with my colleagues, will keep banging this drum until Andrews is locked up.

With any luck, they will throw away the key.

KATIE Price’s sister has revealed how her mum Amy was left so “p***ed off” with the star after another debacle involving husband Lee Andrews.

Last week, following his ‘disappearance’, Katie posted a cover version of the song Get Here and said her desire to record the song had come after being left missing Lee.

But in a new episode of their sister’s podcast, The Katie Price Show, Sophie revealed how Katie had originally told their mum she had recorded it for her.

The track came about as Katie enjoyed a recording session for her upcoming single.

During a break, she revealed how she had asked to record a cover of Get Here as a treat for her mum with the song being a family favourite.

Katie then sent the track to her mum but shortly after posted it online and dedicated it to Lee.

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The move left Amy feeling “p***ed off” with Katie according to Sophie.

Katie originally said: “I did it for mum.

“I said to mum, ‘I know you love this song’.

“But… she’s so p***ed off.”

Sophie interjected to add: “She was so p***ed off right because you put that Reel up…

“Kate called mum and was like I’ve been in the studio and made this song for you.

“Then Kate put it up on Instagram and was like, ‘oh it’s for Lee and for the situation.”

Katie went on to say: “I thought, do you know what, these words actually resonate with what’s going on.

“So then I put it up for Lee.”

Katie proceeded to sing some of the lyrics which included the lines: “You can reach me by sail boat, you can reach me on an airplane.”

HSBC has praised our investigation into Katie Price’s husband Lee Andrews — and repaid the £1,000 our journalist spent to expose him as a fraudster.

Clemmie Moodie sent conman Andrews the money from her account with the bank via its app to see if he would make good on promises to treble it.

David Callington, head of economic crime prevention at HSBC UK, said: “It’s great that The Sun is educating readers on how to spot and avoid fraud and what warning signs to look out for.

“If any HSBC UK customers find themselves in the same position as Clemmie, we’d invite them to get in touch with us to see how we can help.”

The bank concluded Andrews had forged its own branding to fabricate a fake payment screenshot — a document showing £2,900 due to land in Clemmie’s account on May 15 that never arrived.

She had transferred the cash after he pitched a “zero risk” investment.

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What followed was a string of excuses about stock market turns and Abu Dhabi banking hours, then the fake HSBC screenshot, then silence.

Nineteen days after handing the money over, Clemmie went public.

Andrews, a Dubai-based self-styled businessman who has called himself an “international mastermind criminal”, is now wanted by Interpol after Hertfordshire Police escalated their investigation into him.

Former glamour model Katie, 48, claims her missing husband is in prison on spying charges in Dubai.

Mr Callington warned: “Social media has become a leading hunting ground for investment scammers.

“They will share fake testimonials and forged documents with their victims to build trust quickly.

“The first major red flag with any investment scam is usually the assurance of guaranteed, unrealistically high returns.

“Take time to do your research, and speak to your bank if you are unsure about the legitimacy of an investment.”

HSBC experts have identified key red flags customers need to know.

5 SCAM RED FLAGS TO LOOK OUT FOR

1. “GUARANTEED” or unusually high returns are the first warning sign. If fixed, risk-free or above-market returns are promised — think “8% a month” or “double your money” — walk away. Legitimate investments carry risk.

2. PRESSURE and urgency tactics are the scammer’s best friend. They include phrases like “limited allocation”. If someone tells you not to seek independent advice or creates a false deadline, that is a major alarm bell.

3. UNREGULATED or hard-to-verify firms are a serious danger sign. If the product description is vague, treat it with extreme caution. No audited financials or clear documents where you would expect them? That is a red flag.

4. WATCH how they ask you to pay. Requests to send money to personal accounts, to use crypto or gift cards are classic scam tactics. And beware of anyone who tells you to pay fees or tax upfront in order to “release” profits.

5. A SLICK-looking app may show profits climbing, but when you try to withdraw, there are delays, blocked requests or a need to “top up” funds. If a platform makes it hard to get your money back, something is very wrong.

KATIE Price has found hubby Lee Andrews after two weeks — and he claims he was detained on suspicion of spying.

She spoke to conman Lee, 43, for two minutes this morning after his dad put her in touch. Katie, 48, says the call came from Dubai’s Al Awir jail.

She said: “It was very rushed but he said the authorities out there thought he was a spy.”

Relieved Katie added: “I told him how worried I’d been and that I loved him.”

Panicked Katie raised the alarm on May 13, telling fans Lee had been tied up, put in a van and taken to a “black site” after being “arrested”.

Now she says Lee has told her he was detained on suspicion of spying, and is being held at Dubai’s Al Awir prison.

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Katie’s contact with her husband came after his dad Peter texted her to explain his whereabouts.

She said: “I have found him. He is alive, and he is OK. I told him how worried I had been and told him I loved him.

“It was very rushed, but he said the authorities out there thought he was a spy. I don’t know much more than that right now.”

Lee, who lives full-time in Dubai, is believed to have been arrested on May 14.

The Sun, however, understands he has been detained over claims relating to a private civil matter. Authorities have confirmed to us he was NOT held over spying charges.

He is due for release on Monday, but must pay a four-figure fine.

Lee once reposted an Instagram post suggesting he should be the next James Bond.

And he is seen “acting” in an excruciating 2016 video on his YouTube channel titled “Charity TV show: The Agent”.

A comment adds: “Featuring billionaire defense (sic) contractor H.E Weslee Peter John Andrews.”

Espionage is one of the most serious crimes in the United Arab Emirates.

In 2018 Brit PhD student Matthew Hedges was held at Dubai airport on suspicion of spying.

He was jailed for life but pardoned and released following intense international pressure.

In the days before Lee’s arrest he had moved belongings out of his rental apartment, and had moved in briefly with his father, staying in his run-down villa.

It is not known where he disappeared to after this, and his family filed a missing person’s report at the British embassy in Dubai.

On May 19, The Sun told how Lee duped our Clemmie Moodie into investing £1,000 on the promise of quadrupling her investment. It was a bogus scheme, seemingly using documents made using AI.

Before our front-page revelations, two of Lee’s exes shared horror stories involving the fraudster.

Texan nurse Crystal Janke said she had put £123,000 into one of his schemes on the promise of getting £1million, only to lose it all.

Lee’s ex-fiancée Alana Percival — who he proposed to over rose petals and champagne five weeks before rehashing the method with Katie — branded him a manipulative narcissist who feigned a heart condition for sympathy.

Alana claimed he was a swindler and told Katie to “run for the hills”.

Mum-of-five Katie and Lee wed in Dubai in January, days after meeting in person for the first time. He is said to be subject to a travel ban there following imprisonment for fraud last October.

Lee has been exposed for faking his CV, claiming he had worked for the King’s Trust and had a doctorate from Cambridge university.

He has never worked for the Labour Party — as he had claimed on his LinkedIn page.

Last week Katie admitted she was “giving up the search” for Lee after deleting an update about his situation.

She told podcast The Katie Price Show she was “leaving it to the police”, adding: “There’s nothing more I can do, that I can say.

“I’m just staying quiet because it’s getting ridiculous now, people taking the p**s out of everything.”

Katie added: “The police are now handling it, the British police, British consulate, the Foreign Office, Interpol they’re looking for Lee. All I can do is just get on with my life. I’ve got lots of exciting things coming up, and I’m just waiting for a call. What am I supposed to do, sit here and cry and do nothing, stay in bed? For my own sanity, I am taking a step back.”

Last weekend Lee’s dad Peter told the Daily Mail: “Lee is OK. He has not been kidnapped but is under arrest. I don’t know on what charge. I’m not sure where he is being held.”

Katie wrote: “This is fake news. Lee is still missing. Me and his family know what’s going on and are working with the authorities.”

The drama started earlier this month when Lee was due to fly to the UK for an interview with Katie on ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

He failed to turn up, leaving her to face the music on her own, humiliating her in the process.

• IN tomorrow’s Sun, we reveal how HSBC investigated Clemmie’s payment to Lee, and within 24 hours her money had been returned — vindicating allegations of him being a scammer. The bank’s head of fraud reveals the steps you can take to avoid getting swindled and how to claim back your money, step by step, should you have fallen victim to a similar scam.

WHAT a fortnight.

Over the past two weeks, I have been on the hunt for Lee Andrews – ably assisted by Katie Price, our man on the ground in Dubai, Sun readers… and literally thousands of social media followers.

The interest in the story is not like anything I can recall in 20 years of covering showbusiness.

To recap, it all kicked off on May 11th.

My investigation into Lee was published – a man whom several women had gone on record and accused of being a conman, largely thanks to excellent work by Bizarre’s Ellie Henman – and Lee rapidly went to ground.

Having spent two months befriending the fraudster – he was very charming and, absolutely, on a surface level, I really liked him – but it quickly became apparent his money-making ways were dubious. 

They needed to be exposed. I hoped, in so doing, I hoped we might finally open love-loving Katie’s eyes to the chap she had married in haste.

His brave ex-girlfriend Alana Percival also gave a podcast confirming he was a man not to be trusted.

Within 24 hours of publication, Lee had cut off contact from his frantic wife. (A woman, let’s not forget, who had been left humiliated live on air during *that* infamous GMB sofa appearance).

Despite repeated enquiries from our reporter out there, UEA police authorities would not confirm his whereabouts. 

There was seemingly no official record of him in prison, and the Foreign Office insisted they were supporting the family of a man detained. But would give no further information.

In the interim, several madcap theories were being circulated on both TikTok and Instagram by both Katie Price’s fans and her detractors.

I found myself, unexpectedly, at the centre of them.

She stood accused of staging a giant publicity stunt – one to garner attention for her forthcoming three-part documentary, and, bafflingly, I was accused of being “in on it too”.

So let me be clear. I am NOT in on anything. 

As far as I know, and I have to believe her, Katie genuinely did not have a clue where her husband was. Indeed, she took to Instagram to deny prior claims by Lee’s dad that he was holed-up in jail.

She contacted me today in a WhatsApp, simply writing: “I have an update.”

Lee claims, slightly implausibly, he has been arrested for “spying”. I will eat my sun-hat if that is the case; at this stage, I do not believe a word that emerges from that man’s mouth. But, crucially, Katie still wants to believe in him, and help.

So why the interest in this story – one which went on to spawn an international manhunt and one, really, that only Katie Price would find herself embroiled in? 

Well, she is a part of our fabric; love her or loathe her, she is an icon of British pop culture.

We have grown up with her as a nation, and seen first-hand her tumultuous string of wrong’uns (first husband Peter Andre notwithstanding, and perhaps her sweet, most recent ex-boyfriend, JJ Slater).

Katie is a woman who just wants to be loved.

Finally, she has found her missing husband. Perhaps now she can get the answers she so desperately needs.

Katie has appeared in a clip with mate and TV presenter Olivia Attwood as she insisted she still has no idea where Lee is.

Katie turned to Olivia and said: “We’re missing something,” to which Olivia replied: “Yeah, I have looked for him but…”

Katie continued: “Well mine’s missing, so at the moment it doesn’t look good, does it?” Olivia, who split from husband Bradley Dack earlier this year, replied: “No, we’ll keep looking I guess.”

Katie looked at the camera and said:” We’re missing our husbands,” which prompted Olivia to burst out laughing. They followed it up with a picture of them looking shocked with their hands covering their mouth. Olivia captioned it: “2 gals. Not a husband in sight.”

Read more.

KATIE Price and pal Olivia Attwood poked fun at “missing” Lee Andrews after false claims he had been arrested.

The former glamour model spent her 48th birthday last week waiting for news of her husband, as he failed to reach out to her.

Lee has not been in contact with wife Katie since May 13 at 10pm.

On Saturday, Katie was forced to deny claims by Lee’s dad that he had been arrested in Dubai, as she clings to the theory that he’s been kidnapped.

Today, Katie appeared in a clip with mate and TV presenter Olivia Attwood as she insisted she still has no idea where Lee is.

Katie turned to Olivia and said: “We’re missing something,” to which Olivia replied: “Yeah, I have looked for him but…”

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Katie continued: “Well mine’s missing, so at the moment it doesn’t look good, does it?”

Olivia, who split from husband Bradley Dack earlier this year, replied: “No, we’ll keep looking I guess.”

Katie looked at the camera and said:” We’re missing our husbands,” which prompted Olivia to burst out laughing.

They followed it up with a picture of them looking shocked with their hands covering their mouth.

Olivia captioned it: “2 gals. Not a husband in sight.”

It comes after Lee appeared to be active on Instagram AGAIN after false claims that he was arrested.

Now, Insiders have said that Lee was active on his phone on Monday afternoon – and has removed his OnlyFans link from his Instagram bio.

Yesterday a source revealed their messages to Lee – over a week after he walked off the face of the earth.

They explained: “I had been messaging Lee and was getting no response.

“But on Sunday morning, my messages had gone from a single tick to a double – so that device is back on and being used.

“Lee has multiple phones but this is the one that is being used now.”

Despite claims Lee had been arrested, Katie insisted yesterday that this was not true.

She hit back at Peter Andrews and said she had spoken to the police in Dubai.

The former glamour model was left furious last week when Lee – who she’d been led to believe had been kidnapped – returned to social media to follow ‘biker babe’ Marisol on Instagram.

But the conman was dealt another blow last night when the US Navy veteran blocked him on the platform.

Marisol reached out to The Sun and thanked us for making her aware of Andrews’ background.

She confirmed she does not know Lee and has never exchanged messages with him – and has now blocked him.

It comes after Katie released messages in which her husband claimed to be tied up in the back of a van.

He told her he was being taken to a “black site” — a term for a clandestine, state-run detention facility.

A source said: “Lee said he had many jobs, one being an international arms dealer. He seemed really proud of it.

“He boasted repeatedly to anyone who cared to listen that he worked with ­dangerous people. He bragged about it and then he gets kidnapped.

“It’s almost as if he’s been writing a storyline.”

ALANA Percival has shared a number of posts to her Instagram story about karma in the wake of Lee Andrews going missing.

The pair used to date before Lee swept Katie Price off of her feet in a whirlwind romance.

Taking to her socials, Alana reposted two quotes from a psychology account.

The first quote reads: “Karma: no need for revenge. Just sit back and wait.”

The second continues on the same theme, reading: “Those who hurt you will eventually screw up themselves and if you are lucky, God will let you watch.”

The posts come shortly after Alana received ‘threatening’ messages at 2am from someone connected to Lee amid his disappearance.

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Alana took to social media to call out the messages – of which she suggested she was targeted due to her openly being critical of Lee and ‘exposing’ his conman ways both in the press and on social media.

In her lengthy story post, Alana said: “Last night I received a DM from someone very well connected to the ongoing Lee Andrews situation.

“The message contained subtle undertones that I interpreted as threatening, implying that if Lee Andrews were to harm himself, somehow that responsibility would fall on me.

“There were also suggestions that I should stop speaking out, delete things from my phone, and stay quiet because this is now ‘a police matter.’

“So let me respond publicly. If everything that has been exposed about my personal life helps even one woman recognise red flags, leave an unhealthy situation, or avoid ending up in one like I did, then every bit of stress, scrutiny, and intrusion into my life will have been worth it.”

A missing persons’ report was filed with the British Embassy in the United Arab Emirates city this week and four days ago Dubai police denied that Lee had been detained.

Katie has continued to go forward with the theory that Lee has been kidnapped in Dubai, hence why he hasn’t been able to return to the UK.

During their time dating, Alana has claimed Lee conned her in a number of ways.

Lee connected with Alana on Facebook in March last year and she explained how he “love bombed” her with cash transfers, Louis Vuitton bags and Cartier jewellery.

Things moved quickly between the pair and Lee proposed – in a way that was identical to his proposal to Katie, 47, in January.

Speaking about Katie to The Sun earlier this year, Alana expressed: “I just worry for her welfare.

“I worry he’ll maybe end up getting her arrested or a flight ban. He obviously has no remorse toward anyone.”

KATIE Price’s “missing” conman husband Lee Andrews may have lied to her about being detained by copying the real-life ordeal of another Brit, The Sun can reveal.

Andrews, who has a travel ban, told the glamour model he had been apprehended and shoved in a van with a hood over his head at the Dubai-Oman border.

The Dubai-based swindler, 43, also told Katie, 48, that he was being taken to a “black site” – a hidden state-run detention facility – on May 13, and they have not spoken since.

But insiders explain Andrews’s story has striking similarities to that of Brit grandad Albert Douglas, 63, who has detailed his trauma in interviews with newspapers including The Sun – and most recently The Guardian last month.

Millionaire Albert, who lived in Dubai, was arrested for financial fraud in 2019 over a bounced cheque related to his son Wolfgang’s collapsed wooden flooring business, despite having no involvement in the firm.

He was bailed but subjected to a travel ban, and then given a three-year sentence and a £2.5million fine after a court found him liable, with Wolfgang back home in the UK.

After failing in an appeal, Albert tried to flee the country in 2021. His son paid smugglers £20,000 to sneak him across the United Arab Emirates-Oman border at Al Ain in Abu Dhabi.

But soldiers caught dad-of-four Albert, pointing their guns at him, hooding him, and putting him in a van.

They then took him to an unknown location and held him in a dirty cell where he was stripped and beaten for days.

Albert spent the next four years in hellhole Dubai jails after being caged for attempting to flee the country, and he was tortured to within an inch of his life while in detention.

He was finally released last December, following an intervention from the United Nations and pressure from advocacy groups including Detained In Dubai.

After his release, he told this newspaper: “It was like a nightmare with no end.”

Sources in Dubai raised eyebrows after reading the story Andrews fed Katie.

One highly-respected businessman, who has mutual friends with Andrews, told The Sun: “Lee is the type of person to read a story and then imagine it into reality.

“There are lots of similarities between their stories.

“Lee could easily have made this all up based on Albert’s story, as it’s been in the UK press recently, and just be hiding out.”

Andrews’s dad Peter, who runs an insulation and air conditioning firm in Dubai, claimed on Saturday that his son was “OK” but that he had been arrested.

He said: “He has not been kidnapped, but he is under arrest. I don’t know on what charge.

“I’m not sure where he is being held. But he will call me later today. He is not at my house.”

But hours later, mum-of-five Katie dismissed this as “fake news” and insisted that he has not been nicked.

And Dubai’s Criminal Investigation Department could not find a record of his arrest when we made inquiries.

Katie said: “I have spoken to the Dubai police and he definitely isn’t in jail.
“They still don’t know where he is. It is all really confusing and we just need to find Lee.

“I have spoken to his dad. It isn’t true. I don’t know where my husband is.”
Katie wed Andrews in January, just days after meeting him through social media.

He had claimed to be a multimillionaire businessman – but some of his ex-girlfriends accused him of swindling them out of vast sums of cash.
One of them, Crystal Janke, said she handed him £123,000 to invest and he promised to turn it into £1million.

Andrews was also exposed for lying about having a PhD from Cambridge University and working for The King’s Trust and the Labour Party.

He also posted AI-generated images online of himself with celebrities including American reality star Kim Kardashian and Tesla billionaire Elon Musk.

He is said to be the subject of multiple arrest warrants – including for fraud.

Meanwhile, a fresh twist in the drama emerged yesterday after Andrews’s phone was turned on – with WhatsApp messages delivering to his device.
It raises further questions over his dad’s claim that he has been arrested.

A source explained: “I had been messaging Lee and was getting no response.

“But on Sunday morning, my messages had gone from a single tick to a double – so that device is back on and being used.

“Lee has multiple phones but this is the one that is being used now.”

The development came after we told on Saturday how Andrews had followed a glamorous “biker babe” and ex-US Navy veteran called Marisol on Instagram.

She later thanked us for warning her about the grifter’s reputation and blocked him on the social media site.

LEE Andrews has been BLOCKED by the ‘biker babe’ he followed on social media – in a most recent twist to the bizarre tale.

The ‘missing’ husband of Katie Price appeared to briefly return to social media again today when a glam US Navy Veteran was no longer on his following list.

However, The Sun can reveal Marisol blocked Lee’s account.

When users block someone on Instagram, they are automatically unfollowed and removed from following them.

Fans were baffled with Lee seemed to have added Marisol — despite Katie‘s claims he’s been kidnapped.

Before then, Lee’s account only followed Katie – who says she hasn’t heard from her other half since Wednesday, May 13.

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Marisol reached out to The Sun and thanked us for making her aware of Andrews’ background.

She confirmed she does not know Andrews and has never exchanged messages with him – and has now blocked him.

Earlier today Katie clashed with Lee’s dad over her husband’s whereabouts after claims he’d been arrested.

A missing persons’ report was filed with the British Embassy in the United Arab Emirates city and three days ago Dubai police denied he’d been detained.

However, a police insider has since told the Daily Mail: “Lee Andrews has been arrested.”

His dad Peter claimed: “Lee is OK. 

“He has not been kidnapped but he is under arrest. I don’t know on what charge.

“I’m not sure where he is being held. But he will call me later today.

“He is not at my house.”

However, Katie hit back on social media hours later, insisting: “This is fake news.

“Lee is still missing. Me and his family know what’s going on and working
with the authorities involved.”

Katie’s last contact with Andrews came when he claimed he had been arrested and taken to a “black site”.

LEE Andrews’ dad Peter has broken his silence on the ‘disappearance’ of Katie Price’s husband – insisting his son HAS been locked up in a Dubai prison. 

Katie, 48, last week told how she believed Lee, 43, had been “kidnapped” as a missing persons’ report was filed with the British Embassy in the United Arab Emirates city and three days ago Dubai police denied he’d been detained.

Now Peter has claimed Lee is being held by police, telling the Daily Mail: “Lee is OK. 

“He has not been kidnapped but he is under arrest. I don’t know on what charge.

“I’m not sure where he is being held. But he will call me later today.

“He is not at my house.”

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A police insider told the publication: “Lee Andrews has been arrested.”

As part of her investigation exposing Lee as a conman, The Sun’s Clemmie Moodie reported that he is laying low in a run-down villa in Dubai and hasn’t been snatched as part of a nefarious plot which wife Katie has been led to believe. 

Last night Lee made a return to social media after eight days – following a mystery woman named Marisol.

Katie is said to be disgusted and incensed after “kidnapped” hubby Lee reappeared online.

His shock return came on worried Katie’s 48th birthday. In the early hours fans spotted Andrews had added Marisol — and they alerted Katie.

It appears Marisol previously used an online matchmaking service for millionaires.

Katie’s last contact with Andrews came when he claimed he had been arrested and taken to a “black site”.

KATIE Price may be going through hell on earth as she waits for news on her “missing” conman husband Lee Andrews.

But if there’s one thing that the former glamour model, 47, knows how to do, it’s bounce back from heartbreaking and troublesome situations.

And that’s exactly what insiders say three-times divorcee Katie is planning to do next.

Katie has been through the wringer this last week over Lee, who has made no contact with her for days and appears to be in hiding in Dubai, despite initially making his wife think he had been kidnapped.

While Katie is going through hell, a source has insisted that, ultimately, the business savvy star won’t let this ruin her and is used to “turning pain into power”.

And the dramatic scandal is already attracting big money offers, with an insider saying that Katie may reveal all in another autobiography.

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Katie Price reveals more details on Lee Andrews’ ‘kidnap’ and final FaceTime

A source told us: “With Kate, people underestimate her because they see the chaos before her comeback.

“That’s always been the story with her.

“She’s been through bankruptcy, public humiliation, heartbreak and things that would completely destroy most people – in fact, some close friends wonder how she’s still standing after everything she’s been through in her life but somehow she finds a way to rebuild her life and come back bigger and better every single time.

“Right now, everyone is genuinely worried about her.

“She’s extremely vulnerable, she wears her heart on her sleeve, and this whole shocking situation with Lee disappearing has shaken her badly.

“It really upset her too that people said she was in on it all.

“But Katie has this strange ability to survive things people think she won’t. She’s like a cat with nine million lives.”

As our source points out, while the TV star feels embarrassed that Lee has made a fool of her, she won’t be herself be a punchline.

“Katie is mortified that some people think this is one big joke and some cruel trolls are laughing at her for being so trusting, but she’ll dust herself off. At the end of the day, Katie may wish this had never happened but she knows that the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about at all.

“Her life has been laid bare for the world to see for the best part of three decades and she has no desires to let her popularity die anytime soon. And one thing is for sure, she certainly won’t let her brand be damaged by another man.

The source continued: “The thing about Kate is she’s never been ashamed of her mess.

“Most people try to hide their scandals but she somehow turns hers into opportunity.

“It sounds ruthless when you say it out loud, but she’s incredibly smart when it comes to understanding how the media works and how to manage public attention.

“She knows people are fascinated by her life and so she puts it all out there warts and all, nothing is off limits.”

With the huge interest in her latest marriage growing by the day and Lee’s whereabouts still a mystery, it’s fully expected that publishers and streaming channels will want her to dish the dirt on what’s really gone on.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if six months from now she’s announcing a new bestselling book, a brand new Netflix , another series of her upcoming Sky documentary, or maybe even a new reality TV series back on ITV where she started out,” our source said.

“That’s what Katie does. Everything that looks a disaster or like the end for her somehow becomes the beginning of a brilliant new chapter.

“She’s had people mock her for years, saying she’s finished, saying she’s hit rock bottom, but she always seems to have the last laugh.

“Somehow, even disaster turns into profit for her.

“It’s almost unbelievable. Nobody else does this.”

Katie has had her fair share of ups and downs in her life and her romantic life has always been at the centre of that.

Each of her marriages have ended in heartbreak, with the star taking swipes at her various exes on social media over the years.

She married Peter Andre from 2005 to 2009, then briefly to Alex Reid in 2010 to 2011 and Kieran Hayler from 2013 to 2015.

But despite her love life going up on flames on multiple occasions, she’s always managed to find a way to “reinvent herself” a source said.

The insider told us: “Katie’s biggest strength is that she refuses to stay down.

“She can cry one minute and be planning her comeback the next. That resilience is what keeps her going and it’s probably why the public can’t stop rooting for her.”

Over the years, Katie has faced criticism – whether it’s for her driving, her love for cosmetic surgery, her dramatic weight loss or her parenting.

But she has managed to use the backlash to monetise.

Katie’s cashed in on various avenues – from her podcast, to her live show with pal Kerry Katona, to her Channel 4 documentary about her Mucky Mansion and now even her OnlyFans.

And the star has shared her story along the way, writing a whopping eight autobiographies between 2004 to 2024.

Her latest was titled This Is Me and spilled the beans on her exes, her PTSD and her past trauma.

It’s clear that Katie’s not just a one-trick pony.

And it’s no different this time around, regardless of whether Lee is in the picture or not.

“There’s definitely a feeling among her friends that, as awful as this situation is, Katie will eventually find a way to turn pain into power again,” our source said.

“She’s done it her entire life.

“Every scandal, every crisis, every setback, she finds a way to monetise it, reinvent herself, and move forward.

“She is the ultimate brand with true longevity and star power.

“People see the headlines and think she’s fragile, but there’s another side to Katie. She’s incredibly determined. She’s a survivor.

“She’s always believed that if life gives her drama, she might as well make something out of it. Love her or hate her, Katie understands celebrity culture better than most people.

“She knows how to keep herself relevant. Even in the darkest moments, she’s already thinking three steps ahead.

“I think what shocks people is that she never really loses, even when it looks like she has lost everything.

“Somehow, she turns every catastrophe into another opportunity.

“Lee might think he’s won but by the end of it, she’s the only winner.”

It all started last Tuesday when he was supposed to join her on Good Morning Britain for their first television appearance together.

However, he failed to make it to the UK and she was forced to go it alone, facing a grilling from hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls.

Lee, 43, shared an Instagram video where he claimed he was at Muscat airport and he was on his way to the UK.

However, he was caught in a lie as he was actually in Dubai Terminal 2.

Since then, he’s gone off grid and nobody has been able to trace him over the course of the last week.

Katie claimed her husband has been “kidnapped” and the last she heard from him, he was in the back of the van with cable ties on his arms.

She told her YouTube subscribers in a video that the police could not find any record of him being detained and she’d been in contact with the British embassy in Dubai to help track him down.

The former glamour model said: “We are now wondering, as far-fetched as it is, that he’s a missing person now, I don’t know if he’s been kidnapped.

“No one can find him in any prison, any police station, the police can’t find any record of him.

“We are wondering if he’s been kidnapped, he’s definitely a missing person now.

“The unsettling thing for me, the last time I heard from him, he FaceTime me, he had a hood on and said ‘I’ve just been captured or arrested’ and had ties around his hand, not handcuffs, and said ‘they’re coming back for me’. Then his phone went dead at 10.03pm.”

His family filed a missing persons report on Monday at the embassy.

Katie shared her final text messages with Lee, where he told her he loved her and he will “sort it”.

There is ongoing speculation that Lee is unable to leave the United Arab Emirates city after allegedly forging his ex-girlfriend Dina Taji’s signature to secure a £200,000 loan – something he’s strongly denied. 

KATIE Price has said that she misses her husband nine days on from his disappearance after he failed to fly to the UK from Dubai.

Celebrating her 48th birthday alone, Katie took to Instagram to share her pain with fans over missing Lee Andrews.

Taking to her Instagram story and grid on Friday night, just hours after it was revealed her husband had followed a mystery woman online, Katie shared a moving video which saw photos of her and Lee flash past.

In the background, the former glamour model even crooned the hit Get Here.

“Missing my husband so much it breaks my heart knowing he is still missing so I did this song quick as words mean so much to the situation,” she penned in the caption.

“You can reach me by sailboat / Climb a tree and swing rope to rope / Take a sled and slide downslope.

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“You can jump on a speedy colt / Cross the border in a blaze of hope,” Katie croons in the song accompanying the post.

She continues to sing: “I don’t care how you get here / Just get here if you can.”

Reacting to Katie’s heartbreaking post, one fan penned: “This is sad as she genuinely fell in love with him.”

“Katie he doesn’t deserve you. you deserve so much better.. enjoy the rest of your birthday with people who love you,” said another.

While a third wrote: “I really feel for you.”

And a fourth said: “What a sweetheart bless you Kate. Look after yourself. So sorry this is being played out, you have lots of great people around you family is all you need.”

Katie previously revealed how Lee, 43, had “disappeared” last week, after he failed to fly back to the UK for a Good Morning Britain appearance.

Lee told Katie in a voicenote that he needed an “exit stamp” to leave Dubai when he was claiming to be coming back to the UK.

But after he failed to get on a plane, Katie sensationally claimed he had been kidnapped and that the last she’d heard from him, he was in the back of a van with cable ties on his arms.

Katie has since been left fearing for her husband and desperately trying to found out his whereabouts.

A source close to the ex glamour model told us earlier this week: “Lee is officially a missing person now.

At the weekend, Katie said: “I know there is all this speculation but something really serious has happened.”

Then, this week on her podcast, The Katie Price Show, the mum-of-five revealed she was giving up searching for her husband.

“There’s nothing I can do, nothing more that I can say.

“And the police are dealing with it. I’m just leaving it to the police.

“I’m not gonna talk about it anymore, I’m just staying quiet because it’s getting ridiculous now, people just taking the p**s out of everything”.

Katie added: “The police are now handling it, the British police, British consulate, the foreign office, Interpol they’re on the case looking for Lee.

“All I can do is just get on with my life.

“I’ve got lots of exciting things coming up, and I’m just waiting for a call.

“What am I supposed to do, sit here and cry and do nothing, stay in bed?”

She also said: “For my own sanity, I am taking a step back”.

Katie has now not heard from Lee for nine days now, with her husband failing to get in touch despite it being her 48th birthday.

The race for the 34th Congressional District in the core of Los Angeles was supposed to be a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party. The two dozen hopefuls vying for a spot in the top-two primary were full of self-proclaimed fighters ready to oppose President Trump and establishment Democrats.

Instead, it’s shaping up to be a contest between the powerful group of Latinos who make up a majority of the district’s voters and the small but politically potent Korean American community, as Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez and former city planning Commissioner Robert Lee Ahn grabbed the runoff spots that will determine L.A.’s next member of Congress.

“This is really ethnic politics 101,” said Matt Barreto, a UCLA professor of political science who helps run the polling firm Latino Decisions.

Ahn, an attorney and a relative unknown in the crowded primary field, surprised many with a victory that vaulted him ahead of multiple Latino candidates in a district where more than half the voters are Latino. If elected in the June 6 runoff, he would be the only Korean American member of Congress and the first in nearly 20 years.

But it wasn’t surprising to anyone who studies the intricacies of identity politics in Los Angeles, or to those who had been paying attention to Ahn’s aggressive focus on Korean American voters.

Ahn’s campaign staff spent dozens of hours registering voters at malls and outside restaurants in Koreatown, signing up hundreds of new voters. Ahn made his pitch at multiple Korean churches in the district, and a large portion of his donor base was from the Korean American community, which helped him raise more money than Gomez in the latter part of the campaign despite a deluge of cash Gomez received from political committees.

And when Virginia state legislator Mark Keam, also a Korean American, flew to Los Angeles to endorse Ahn, a bank of TV cameras from Korean American news stations was there.

Robert Lee Ahn raised the most money by far in latest campaign finance reports »

Daniel Hong, a 38-year-old who works in the film industry, voted for the first time Tuesday even though he’s been a citizen for about 20 years. Hong, who is Korean American, said he read numerous articles about Ahn and received multiple phone calls from his campaign.

“That was the first time anybody has ever reached out to me for my vote,” said Hong as he stood outside a polling place set up in a Korean Presbyterian church.

Deborah Choi, 62, said she voted for Ahn so “he can speak for Korean Americans here.” The first wave of Koreans immigrated to the U.S. “so many years ago,” Choi said, but their representation in the highest elected offices remains low. She hopes her 36-year-old son will one day run for office too.

Though county election officials have yet to process more than 13,000 ballots, the 41-year-old Ahn remains thousands of votes ahead of the third-place candidate, fellow former planning Commissioner Maria Cabildo.

With turnout expected to hover around 15% of registered voters, preliminary returns show Ahn’s strategy paid off big. The biggest strongholds of votes for Ahn centered on Koreatown, Westlake and Chinatown, while the 42-year-old Gomez was ahead in neighborhoods throughout the northeast part of the district.

In early absentee ballot returns headed into primary election day, Korean Americans made up nearly a quarter of votes even though they comprise just 6% of registered voters.

Few Korean Americans have come this close to winning a seat in Congress since 1998, when Republican Jay Kim of Diamond Bar lost to a primary challenger after three terms in office. (David Min, a UC Irvine professor, announced a challenge to GOP Rep. Mimi Walters of Orange County this week.)

“Korean Americans in Southern California have been hungry for political representation for a very long time,” said Taeku Lee, a professor of politics and law at UC Berkeley. Lee said the recent campaign that helped propel David Ryu, the first Korean American elected to the L.A. City Council, may have also helped the community learn on-the-ground skills that mobilized voters in the congressional race.

The symbolism of Ahn’s win was not lost on his supporters Tuesday night.

“It’s very significant,” said Jinha Park, a radiologist who attended Ahn’s election night party at a Mexican restaurant in Westlake. “The Korean American community has always felt voiceless at the federal level.”

The question now, as the two Democrats ready for what could be a costly runoff, is whether Ahn, the son of Korean immigrants, can broaden his appeal beyond the Korean American voters who are motivated to send him to Washington.

He faces a fierce challenge: While progressive candidates to his left spoke passionately about fighting for “sanctuary cities” that protect undocumented immigrants and single-payer healthcare, Ahn emphasized the “business sensibility” he would bring to the office and argued there was room to negotiate with Republicans on certain issues, an idea that could prove unpopular in a district where just 9% of voters are Republican, and where Bernie Sanders beat Hillary Clinton in last year’s presidential primary.

Ahn will also have to make a case to Latino voters, who make up more than half of registered voters in the district, why they should choose him over Gomez. The three-term assemblyman is the son of Mexican immigrants, has amassed dozens of establishment endorsements from Democratic elected officials, labor unions and environmental groups, and touted his progressive record in the Legislature.

Among his backers is Xavier Becerra, who rose to become the highest-ranking Latino U.S. congressman and vacated the seat to become California’s attorney general.

Votes that went to the remaining Latino candidates in the primary made up more than 38% of voters at last count, and the district has sent a Latino to Congress for more than half a century.

“When [Ahn is] running against a guy named Gomez, as good as his outreach might be in the Latino community, Latinos’ gut and heart is going to be more with Gomez,” said UCLA professor Barreto.

Ahn dismissed the idea. “The notion that Latinos will only vote for a Latino … I think we’re really going to transcend that with our campaign,” Ahn said in an interview Wednesday. He appears to be positioning himself as an outsider, which would be similar to the campaign Ryu ran when he made his successful council run in 2015. Ahn called Gomez a “professional politician that is powered by special interests.”

Gomez’s camp shot back, saying voters will see through Ahn’s formidable fundraising and realize his credentials don’t match with the district.

“More than anything, he’s ideologically out of step with the district,” said Parke Skelton, a campaign consultant for Gomez. Skelton said Ahn, who changed his registration from Republican to Democrat in 2012, “has taken positions that really put him out of the mainstream Democratic base in this district.”

christine.maiduc@latimes.com

For more on California politics, follow @cmaiduc.

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SUSPICIOUS Katy Price fans claim to have spotted her missing hubby “active” on social media, despite him being AWOL for nearly a week.

Lee Andrews lost contact with his distraught wife last week, after sending her a late night text claiming he’d been arrested and taken to a hostile “black site”.

But minutes later, he backtracked, alleging he’d in fact been “kidnapped”, bundled into the back of a van and taken to an ominous detention facility.

Katie shared the couple’s bewildering WhatsApp exchange with The Sun in a frantic bid to track down the Dubai-based businessman.

The Criminal Investigation Department confirmed that no one by Lee’s name had been detained.

The sketchy self-proclaimed millionaire is reportedly banned from leaving the country, after serving time at Dubai’s Al-Awir Prison for alleged financial fraud last October. 

Read more Showbiz

TRUTH ABOUT LEE

Katie Price’s conman hubby EXPOSED as Sun’s Clemmie catches him red-handed

‘I’M IN A VAN!’

Katie Price reveals final texts sent by conman hubby as he was ‘arrested’

With fans already suspicious of Lee’s whereabouts and a dodgy track record, what should the star believe?

Have your say in our exclusive poll.

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KATIE Price has begged fans for help after issuing an update on husband Lee Andrews.

The star, 47, insisted that police still cannot find him after he went ‘missing’ six days ago.

Lee, 43, was due to jet to the UK to appear on Good Morning Britain alongside Katie but failed to show up – largely understood to be as a result of a travel ban.

Katie has now issued another video statement and begged fans for their help.

The star said: “I just don’t know what to say. The last time, you know, I heard from as I said before was Wednesday at 10 o’clock.

“I’ve been reading his last few messages and then I’ve heard nothing.

TRUTH ABOUT LEE

Katie Price’s conman hubby EXPOSED as Sun’s Clemmie catches him red-handed

ROLL THE TAPES

Listen to Katie Price’s conman hubby’s voicenotes to The Sun IN FULL

“My anxiety levels are sky high.

“I just don’t know what to say.

“If there is anyone in Dubai or you know anyone in Dubai and you spot him – cause I don’t know where he is.

“Cause the last thing I know his hands are tired. He had a hood over his head, not fully over and he was in the back of a van.

“And that’s all I know.

“The police can’t find him anywhere where he’s been detained.

“No phone calls have been made. So I don’t know where he is.”

Clearly worried, Katie added: “I just want to know someone helped find him.

” I don’t know where he is. I don’t know what’s happened to him. And it’s been five days.

“I’m a survivor, but I’ve never been in a situation like this.

“I don’t think many people have been in a situation like this where all of a sudden the last message you get, FaceTime from your husband in the back of a van, a dirty old van.

“The thoughts in my mind was just his face on that FaceTime and then he’s gone.”

The star concluded her lengthy video statement by saying:  “We need to find him.

“And that’s all I can say, just please help find him.

“Then when we find him, I’m sure there’ll be an explanation or something where we know exactly what’s gone on until then – he’s been silent for five days, gone off grid for five days.

“That’s not normal for anyone.

“I know there’s all this stuff online that he’s a con man, he’s a scammer, but I just want to say to everyone, I want to find him.

“So just keep your eyes open. And I’m really upset and distressed that everyone thinks I’m in on this.”

It comes just days after Katie said she feared Lee had been “kidnapped”.

However, we exclusively revealed he was not missing but hiding out in his villa.

The Sun’s Clemmie Moodie shared that Lee has not been “kidnapped“.

It came after she caught Lee red-handed and released a bombshell account about his burner phones and scamming voice notes.

Clemmie gave Lee some money to invest to see what he would do with it, and spent weeks chatting to him about investment opportunities.

However, she has since not seen a single penny of her money returned.