Katie Price has told of her struggles to care for her 16-year-old disabled son Harvey, who she is putting into residential care part-time.
The TV star and former glamour model said she has received negative comments since saying earlier this week on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme that she is considering putting him into care for five days a week.
Price told ITV’s This Morning: “He’s 6ft 2in, he’s 24 stone, and still growing.
“I only show him (on social media) when he’s good and, carers out there will understand, he’s got this side to him, his challenging behaviour, he’s got autism, Prader-Willi syndrome, my house is smashed to bits, he’s gone through eight iPads this year, four TVs.”
Price, who has four other children, added: “It’s so hard now, even at night he’s like a nightmare new-born because I don’t get any sleep.
“He’ll come in, he’ll go in the kitchen, he bangs about, he goes in the kids’ room, and he’ll be like ‘boo’ and wake them up. They’re scared, so they get in my room.
“I love him so much, he’s my absolute life, but he’s just hard work now.”
She said that Harvey, whose father is former footballer Dwight Yorke, has “trigger points”, such as somebody banging a door.
“The nearest thing near him, he’ll chuck it,” she said.
She said it has “got to the point now” where she feels she has no choice but to put him in residential care at his school, from Monday to Friday, but that it took her a long time to be convinced it was the right decision.
She added: “Now, because I went on a show the other day and I said about the residential care, some people are saying ‘oh, you’re out of order, why are you putting him in residential care?’
“I hear these comments and I know I shouldn’t read them, they’re like, ‘what are you on about? You’ve got carers, you go on holiday, this and that’. Yes, I’ve got a life, but I’m with him all the time.
“I haven’t got carers for him at all, I do it myself, one to one.”
She added: “I’ve never done respite, because I would never want Harvey to think that I’m palming him off, but it’s come to a point where I actually have no choice.”
The programme’s agony aunt Deidre Sanders told Price: “I so admire you for what you’ve been doing, it’s one thing caring for somebody frail, but you’re caring for someone who is a very big chap now, and it’s great that you can calm him down.
“But he probably does need different boundaries now, and people have got the structure in place.”
Harvey is blind, and also has autism and Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes a wide range of physical symptoms, learning difficulties and behavioural problems, according to the NHS.
Price, 40, also has two children with ex-husband Peter Andre, son Junior and daughter Princess, and two children with estranged husband Kieran Hayler, daughter Bunny and son Jett.
Price has been pushing for the creation of Harvey’s Law, a measure to criminalise online trolling, which she proposed to MPs during a trip to Parliament.
She said tougher punishment for online trolls is a “no-brainer”, and has called for a change in the law following the abuse directed at her son for his disabilities.