CONTRARY to popular belief, it wasn't Peter Andre's shocking statement about his ex Katie Price that lit the fire under Alex Reid, another of her aggrieved former husbands, to come forward with his own damning exposé.
Instead, The Sun can reveal it was actually four seemingly innocuous words, buried in various defiant statements direct from camp Price last week, which sent the former MMA fighter nuclear.
After years of quietly sitting on a pile of evidence he's been meticulously gathering over the last decade, sources have told us exactly what pushed Alex to hit 'publish' on a leaked video showing a bankrupt Katie counting wads of cash while boasting to daughter Princess.
A very close friend of Alex's revealed: "When Alex saw Peter's statement last Thursday night, he wasn't necessarily planning to come out with his own damning takedown just days later, but then there was a comment that Katie's rep released after Peter's post that literally tipped Alex over the edge and set these wheels in motion."
The statement from Katie's spokesperson last Thursday night, responding to Peter's claims that Princess and Junior have been in his custody since 2018 for their safety, said: "Kate is in a much better and clear headspace and is at peace with the situation.
"This was in the past, and she doesn't feel the need to bring up tit for tat comments, but more importantly she's dealing with this the right way and it's now in her lawyers hands.
"Kate will no longer be gaslighted and bullied as she once was."
'He was just crushed'
While the statement was 63 words long in total, pals reveal it was just four of those words in particular that left Alex reeling.
The friend explains: "Alex read that comment that 'Katie is at peace' over and over, and he was just crushed, because he most certainly is not at peace.
"It was those words that touched such a nerve for him, out of everything Katie has said, because the trauma of everything he has been through since the end of his marriage to her is still very raw.
"He hasn't healed from it, and he remains a very vulnerable person. It's affected not just him, but his entire family and loved ones.
"He feels like Katie just washes her hands of stuff and takes no accountability – saying she is at peace feels so dismissive, hypocritical and absolutely ridiculous."
And now, it seems, all bets are off as far as Alex is concerned.
The pal added: "This has been years in the making, but now Alex has blown the lid on everything and there will be lots more to come out.
"He has some game-changing evidence up his sleeve that will change the way people view this entire sorry saga."
Troll hell
The source alleges that Alex's frustration has continued to build over the years because he is still targeted by the most vicious trolling from Katie's fans.
He believes this is fuelled by Katie and her camp taking subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, swipes at him wherever possible to this very day.
The insider revealed: "An example of this is how Katie will still casually bring up Alex's cross-dressing alter ego Roxanne in interviews as a way of painting him to be some kind of sordid weirdo.
"The irony is, Roxanne was something Katie encouraged and was instrumental in creating, then she kink-shamed him about.
"Alex never lied about the fact that he had a naughty side, but it all got totally blown out of proportion, and he still gets mercilessly mocked about Roxanne to this day."
Another bugbear that has recently stuck in Alex's craw is seeing snaps of Katie jetting back from Turkey following a round of free surgery sporting a black designer YSL bag worth £1700 over her shoulder.
She has also been flaunting a green and gold Van Cleef and Arpels necklace in recent social media posts, which retails for £14k.
If he wanted to cash in, he could have sold the video to the highest bidder instead of releasing it for free on his social media. Now this is about accountability and justice. It's about doing the right thing.
Insider
They added: "Alex isn't living in poverty, but, like most people in the country, he feels the financial pinch.
"He lives month to month, making money doing PAs, mentoring MMA fighters here and there and also working as a jobbing actor, but he certainly isn't rolling in it.
"He walked away from his marriage to Katie with little more than the shirt on his back, and he believes he would be doing far better in his career had he never got involved with her.
"The money Katie spends on the upkeep of her horses alone in a week is more than Alex earns in a month.
"A lot of work opportunities dried up for Alex because of the things Katie pedalled about him in public, so it's galling for Alex to see Kate swanning round with designer bags and jewels – especially since she still hasn't paid him a penny of what she was ordered to pay him by the courts in 2020."
Indeed, five years ago, Alex was awarded £175k in damages and legal costs after he sued Katie for showing a sex tape of him to the audience on Big Brother's spin-off show without his consent.
The pal says: "Alex doesn't believe he will ever see that money, but for him, this isn't about making money.
"If he wanted to cash in, he could have sold the video to the highest bidder instead of releasing it for free on his social media. Now this is about accountability and justice. It's about doing the right thing."
Bombshell video
The video Alex shared publicly, believed to have been filmed in 2020, showed a then bankrupt Katie Price appearing to count wads of cash in front of daughter Princess.
The clip shows Katie bragging that she is "enjoying counting" the money while boasting: "There's loads here… I'm just sorting it out".
She also mentions a London flat she appears to own, and when quizzed by Princess about whether she will contribute to school fees, holds up her middle finger and responds: "Your dad can sit on that".
Laughing, she continues: "Does he go on about it a lot? Well it's tough because I'm in bankruptcy to next May now."
In response to Alex leaking the clip, a rep for Katie insisted that Katie's Trustee in Bankruptcy had been aware of the footage for some time and that she had been "fully compliant" with nothing to hide.
All of Katie's former husbands and fiancés have a shared experience, and right now, it appears to be the perfect storm where many of them have decided to speak out at the same time.
Insider
She also denied that the cash in the video belonged to Katie, and said the property in question was "dealt with in the financial settlement proceedings arising out of Katie's divorce from Peter."
Sources tell us that Alex has had the video in his possession for some time, although it's not clear who recorded it or sent it to him, but he chose not to release it until Princess came of age.
The insider added: "Alex was very aware that Princess was only a minor at the time the video was recorded, and didn't want it out there until Princess was of age.
"Peter and Alex aren't in cahoots on this and don't speak directly, but Alex has a lot of respect for Peter.
"All of Katie's former husbands and fiancés have a shared experience, and right now, it appears to be the perfect storm where many of them have decided to speak out at the same time.
"There is a strength they all find in knowing they aren't alone in all this."
Indeed, Alex Reid's life could have all been very different.
'Telling his truth'
Prior to meeting and falling for Katie Price in July 2009, not long after she had split from Pete, Alex had a promising career in mixed martial arts and was also a budding actor.
He notched up eight wins in cage fighting championships between 2004 and 2007, and enjoyed a small part in Hollyoaks.
But a chance meeting with Katie at her pal Michelle Heaton's 30th birthday party at London nightspot Cafe De Paris catapulted him into a world of glossy mag interviews and showbiz events – on occasion dressed as Roxanne to maximise their column inches.
Katie briefly dumped him when she returned to the I'm A Celeb jungle in late 2009, but a few weeks later they were back on – just in time for Alex to enter the Celebrity Big Brother house in January 2010.
Alex emerged the winner – beating out the likes of Vinnie Jones and Dane Bowers, another of Katie's exes- before he and Katie married in a whirlwind wedding a month later in Vegas.
But just eleven months later, the marriage was over, and both took a string of shots at each other in the media.
Katie claimed in one of her myriad autobiographies that she had married Alex "too soon" after her split from Pete, and branded his "weird and kinky" bedroom fetishes as "the most disturbing s**t you can imagine and times it by ten."
In response, Alex called his time with Katie his "prostitute" years, adding she spun the Roxanne narrative "for her own financial and business gains".
He summed up: "It's a pretty crappy life having to sell your soul to make a living."
Alex then moved on with fellow Big Brother star Chantelle Houghton, who he had a daughter, Dolly, with in 2012, but they separated acrimoniously just four months later.
But after years of dark times, Alex has found his soulmate in fiancée, blogger and IVF campaigner Nikki Manashe, with whom he shares a daughter and twin sons.
"Nikki has really been Alex's rock through all of this," a pal says of the pair, who got together in 2013.
"He wouldn't have had the strength to sue Katie Price in 2020 without Nicki by his side, or go public with his latest campaign to expose his ex.
"Alex knows taking on Katie Price is not for the faint-hearted, but he believes in his cause and with Nicki in his corner, he feels he can finally tell the world his truth."
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