The Loose Women favourite lifts the lid on her relationship with her husband and reveals why the happy couple needed therapy
Katie Piper has opened up about going through couples therapy to make her marriage stronger. The campaigner and presenter, who has been with husband Richard Sutton since 2013, said the pair continue to work on their relationship more than a decade later.
Describing it as a “relationship MOT”, Katie, 41, says it’s been key to keeping their marriage on track. “I’ve had therapy in lots of ways that people wouldn’t [expect],” she explained. “Therapy for the burn injury stopped years ago. I’ve had therapy since for normal things in life that people go through that aren’t visible. I’ve been to couples therapy with Rich. It’s like a relationship MOT and it helps because it validates what you’re going through.”
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Loose Women star Katie says it’s helped her feel “seen and heard”. “It’s healthy for your marriage and friendships,” advocates the mum-of-two. “Relationships go through different seasons. You see him as your boyfriend, then he’s your husband, then you see him as a dad. It sounds a bit cliché and overused, but Rich has got a lot of kindness at his core.”
The couple have daughters Belle, 11, and Penelope, seven, and Katie says she’d love to expand their family. After trying for a third baby but not being successful, Katie says they have been talking about fostering and adoption. “I know the kids would love another child,” Katie admits. “We tried naturally before I turned 40 but it wasn’t meant to be. We talked about how far we would take it – IVF and fostering or adopting. I would lean more to fostering and adopting because I was like, ‘I’m done with medical stuff.’”
The household has grown recently – with the addition of a dog. “The kids have always wanted a dog and [this year] we rehomed one from Battersea, through Alison Hammond on For the Love of Dogs,” Katie told woman&home magazine in a new intereview. “It’s like having a newborn but it’s good for the kids. It has given them something to pour their responsibility into.”
Katie survived a sulphuric acid attack by an ex-boyfriend when she was 24. She suffered severe scarring to her face, chest, neck, arm and hands, and has undergone more than 250 operations. She became a campaigner after the 2008 horror. She recently said she “never thought she’d make it to 40” after the devastating attack.
Sharing her thoughts on the beauty pressures put on women, Katie says they should embrace ageing. “Women, I think, often feel that they fade out of the male gaze, and I was removed in seconds at 24,” she said.
“Nobody experiences such rapid transition and that’s why it [was] traumatic and unnatural. We live in a society that values beauty and youth, so it’s [about] exploring where you sit with that, and how that affects how you operate and your identity.
“I don’t want women to fear transition. I want them to be malleable, not rigid. I want them to know there is life after and not to feel controlled by their circumstances…. Now I’ve arrived in [my] 40s, I realise that this is the time of my life when I’ve truly been living.”
The August issue of woman&home is on sale Thursday.
Her book Still Beautiful: On Age, Beauty & Owning Your Space by Katie Piper is available now.
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