Gladiators legend Ace admits ‘regrets’ over doomed Katie Price engagement

Former Gladiators star Warren Furman – who many may remember as Ace – has reflected on his failed engagement to Katie Price.

The 51-year-old former bodybuilder became a huge star in the UK in the 1990s when he was a star cast member of ITV’s action game show – which is being revived by the channel and returns to screens this month. Warren joined the show in 1996, with fame and fortune arriving in his life soon after.

Now training to become a vicar, the former gym buff admits his life got wildly out of hand in the 1990s as he turned to drink, sleeping around, and a life of excess. At the peak of his fame, he began an explosive romance with 45-year-old Katie – back when she was known better by her topless modelling name Jordan.

The pair became engaged in 1997 and their private lives became headline fodder as they sold stories about each other and told all about their sex lives to the press. Looking back at the time, Warren admits he had gone off the rails.

He told The Sun in a new interview: “Morally, I was making some poor choices. When everyone is calling you Ace you start to believe it. I started to become conceited.” He also regrets selling stories about Katie, saying publicly that he was glad to have “dodged a bullet” by not marrying her, and for any distress that may have caused her and her family a the time. He said: “It was selfish, It’s not the way I think now. I have great admiration for her. I know how difficult it is being a parent.”

Having turned to the church, where he will be ordained as a vicar this July, Warren hopes that Katie – whose life has continued to be very much a car crash in the years since their romance collapsed – will be able to find peace and contentment. He said: “If I see a picture of her in the papers and magazines, I pray that she would know God as I do and realise that her identity doesn’t have to be in altering her body or having operations. God loves who she is.”

He adds: “At the time we were playing games and selling stories about each other. Recently I sent a message to her parents to say, ‘I just want you to know I am sorry for my part in it. I hope you will forgive me’. Her parents came back and said, ‘We really enjoyed having you around’. It was quite heart-warming.”

Over the years, Katie has been open about her surgical enhancements which included having at least 16 operations on her breasts over the years, further cosmetic treatments including fillers, bum jobs, and getting fake teeth added to her mouth. Her personal life has also been played out in the eyes of the public, in 2019 she was declared bankrupt, and she has also avoided jail after a string of driving offences – including writing off her BMW when she crashed while drunk and on drugs in 2021.

The mum-of-five has also been unlucky in love over the years – with her most recent engagement to one-time Love Island contestant Carl Woods ending last month. The star declared she doesn’t want to marry someone she knows she will divorce, saying in a podcast last week: “I would get married again and I want the full shebang. I just want it to be right, I never wanted to get divorced and marry again and again.”

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