Wearing a tiny, red, string bikini, and with a megawatt smile plastered across her face, there was just a whisper of air between Katie Price and her dance partner.
But it wasn’t her toyboy boyfriend JJ Slater who she was partying with under the Spanish sun at the exclusive O Beach club in Ibiza, rather engaged UFC fighter Conor McGregor.
During a hedonistic few weeks on the Balearic island in June, wild parties raged on yachts, fights broke out on dancefloors and a very close friendship between the glamour girl and the sportsman was cemented. One, I’m told, that raised many an eyebrow on the White Isle.
While JJ, Katie’s boyfriend of 18 months, remained in the UK and before Conor’s partner Dee Devlin jetted over to join him, sources say the pair got on like a house on fire, bonding over their similar lifestyles and love of letting loose.
‘Katie and Conor got on famously,’ says one source. ‘They really bonded in Ibiza; they have both had some trying times in recent years so perhaps they had quite a lot to talk about.’
‘Conor threw an amazing party and we all know how Katie likes to have a good time. They had a brilliant time together. Everyone was talking about it – it was the chatter of the party.’
As well as hanging out at the VIP event alongside Wayne Lineker and Dean Gaffney, Katie, 47, also joined Conor, 37, for a party on the yacht he had chartered, which turned into an alcohol-fuelled, three-day event.
The emergence of this close friendship – displayed for the world to see in a series of Instagram snaps and effusive comments – left some with their noses out of joint, namely reality TV personality, JJ.
Katie Price and Conor McGregor pose for a photo together in Ibiza
The Married At First Sight star, 32, was deeply unimpressed when Conor posted a photo of himself cuddling up to a bikini-clad Katie to his 47 million followers.
And, to add insult to injury, the Irish fighter made it clear that it wasn’t just a casual run-in with the star, intimately captioning the photo: ‘@katieprice forever’.
For her part, Katie did little to downplay the connection, sharing the photo on her own account and describing her friend as a ‘legend’.
‘The next thing JJ unfollows Conor. It all seems a bit over the top to do that just because Katie made friends with him,’ says our source.
Despite this public show of disapproval, JJ and Katie have remained together and appear to have put the issue behind them.
While JJ wasn’t present in Ibiza, he and Conor met in person earlier this year when he travelled to Ireland with Katie.
The glamour girl is said to have introduced her boyfriend to Conor when they visited his pub, having already established a friendship with the martial artist.
Conor seems to be unfazed by the fallout from his Instagram photo, and he had other problems to deal with when his trip to Ibiza took a violent turn.
Just one day after cosying up to Katie, the former UFC champion was embroiled in a physical fight with another partygoer at Pacha nightclub in the early hours of the morning.
A video taken on June 17 by a fellow reveller showed the controversial star throwing punches at an unnamed man at 6am.
He was later spotted sporting a red mark under his eye as he soaked up the sun on his yacht. Some days later he was joined by partner Dee and their children.
Following his week of debauchery, Conor settled down for a family holiday and they hopped from Ibiza over to Mallorca.
Back in the UK, Katie has been focusing on her health and this week told fans she had become slightly concerned by the fact she had lost so much weight recently.
In a post on Snapchat, she told her followers that she ‘didn’t know why’ she’d been losing weight, denying that she has been using weight loss jabs.
JJ Slater and Katie Price at the Paralympic Games launch in London in 2024
‘I’ve been up early at the doctors so she could do some bloods and because my veins are so s*** they had three attempts,’ she said.
‘They could only fill two tubes up, so I’ve got to go back in two weeks.’
The mother-of-five started a relationship with JJ, who is 16 years her junior, in February last year, and while they are yet to take the next step and move in together, they seem to have moved on from the events of the summer.
JJ rose to fame when he appeared on the Channel 4 dating show in 2023 where he controversially swapped the bride he had been paired with for another.
He met Katie soon after and, following the breakdown of her relationship with Carl Woods, the pair struck up a romantic relationship.
The clothing brand owner has stuck by Katie during a tumultuous few months, during which a number of her exes have taken public swipes at her.
Peter Andre, 52, to whom she was married from 2005 to 2009, recently released a social media statement saying he wanted to ‘set the record straight’ about a 2019 court order that brought their two children under his care.
He accused Katie of ‘baseless accusations’ and ‘lies’ in the wake of the ruling, which saw Junior, 20, and Princess, 18, come to live with him.
Katie said she was ‘very, very upset’ to have not been included in her daughter’s debut reality show The Princess Diaries, which aired earlier this year, claiming she had offered to take part in it for no fee but was turned down.
Alex Reid, 50, who was Katie’s husband from 2010-2012, also took aim at his ex-wife by releasing a video of her which appeared to show her counting wads of cash soon after she declared herself bankrupt in 2019.
While seemingly dodging bullets from all corners, Katie appears to still have the unwavering support of her devoted boyfriend – if he can refrain from picking a fight with her new friend Conor.
