Katie Price hopes she isn’t outlived by her son.
Katie Price
The 42-year-old former glamour model insisted she doesn’t “want” 18-year-old Harvey – who has septo-optic dysplasia, which causes blindness and growth hormone deficiency, Prader-Willi syndrome, ADHD and autism – to die before her but she worries about how he’d cope if she wasn’t there to look after him.
She admitted to The Times magazine: “I wish he would go before me. Not because I want him to die, but you talk to any mother and they worry about who will look after their disabled child when they are gone.
“He wouldn’t understand why I wasn’t there and it would break his heart. No one would cuddle him like me. No one would kiss him.
“The thought of him dying of a little broken heart would be awful.”
Katie compared Harvey to an “adult baby” and admit there is no one who can cope with his violent behaviour and emotional disturbances in the way she can.
She said: ““He might lash out if he’s in a mood, but never with me. Never. Never me.
“But I always say to people, ‘If he’s kicking off and goes on the ground, don’t go up to him. Just leave him or he will kick you.’
“Talking to him like I do doesn’t work for other people. I have my connection with him. You have to work out your own way with Harv. He’s not stupid. He’s cleverer than people think…
“I am always trying angles with him, trying to make things OK. It’s what it’s like with him, all the time. He’s like a baby. Like an adult baby. He’s a man but he’s still a baby. Does that make sense?”
The ‘Loose Women’ star – who has four other children from her previous marriages – admitted caring for Harvey can be very “draining”.
She said: “Not many people would be able to cope with it mentally, because it is draining. I’m not going to lie. It is very draining and constant. You don’t get a break from it.”
And Katie often wants to approach the others parents she sees who are caring for disabled or autistic children and offer them some words of praise.
She said: “[I want to say] ‘You are doing a really good job! And I bet you don’t get enough credit for it,’ because I know how hard it is to get them up, get them dressed, get them out of the door even to a shop.”
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