The Loose Women favorite exposes the difficulties that the happy couple faced in their relationship and explains why therapy was necessary.
Katie Piper has opened up about using couples therapy to strengthen her marriage. More than ten years later, the campaigner and presenter, who has been dating Richard Sutton since 2013, said the couple are still working on their relationship.
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, who both have 11-year-old daughters, and seven-year-old Penelope, say Katie would be happy to grow their family. Katie claims they have been discussing fostering and adoption after unsuccessfully attempting to adopt a third child. Katie admits, “I am aware that the kids would love a second child.” Before I turned 40, we made an attempt on our own, but it was unwise. We discussed whether IVF, adoption, and fostering would be the best options. Because I was like, “I’m done with medical stuff,” I would prefer to foster and adopt.
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.
Katie says women should embrace getting older while sharing her thoughts on the pressures women are subject to in terms of beauty. I was taken out in seconds at age 24 because, in my opinion, women frequently feel like they vanish from the male gaze.
No one goes through such a rapid transition, which is why it was traumatic and unnatural. It’s [about] exploring where you sit with that and how that affects how you operate and your identity because society values beauty and youth.
Women shouldn’t be afraid of transition, I say. They should not be rigid, but malleable. I want them to know that there is hope after all and not feel constrained by their circumstances. “Now that I’m in my [my] 40s, I realize that this is the period of my life when I’ve truly lived.
On Thursday, the August issue of woman&home will be available.
She published her book, Owning Your Space, by Katie Piper in the spring of this year.
