Gareth Gates has disclosed how "shocked" he was when Katie Price publicly revealed they had been intimate. The singer, 41, was just 17 when he finished runner-up on the inaugural series of Pop Idol in early 2002, and mere months later, he began a short-lived romance with Katie, who at that point was one of Britain's leading models performing under the stage name Jordan.

Katie, 47, presently caught up in the ongoing saga concerning her missing husband Lee Andrews, was swift to declare that she had taken his virginity, and, more than two decades later, Gareth has confessed that he would "never" have made such a public declaration about her on such a deeply personal matter.

He said: "I haven't ever spoken about relationships. I believe that relationships are between two people, and I couldn't believe that somebody else was selling stories about very, very intimate details. I was shocked. But I learned a lot about the industry, and trust. I would never have done that to her or anybody else. It was a real learning curve for me."

Gareth, who shares daughter Missy, 17, with ex-wife Suzanne Mole, and was previously engaged to former Coronation Street actress Faye Brookes but is now romantically involved with West End star Allana Taylor, maintained that Katie is a "lovely girl" but acknowledged he had to rapidly master the art of navigating trust during the early stages of his showbusiness career.

Speaking to former TOWIE star Jamie Laing on the Great Company podcast, he said: "It was a shame because she's a really, really lovely girl but I couldn't believe that somebody could do that. I became very wary of trusting people after that because that was such a big thing, on a massive, massive scale.

"It was everywhere. It became the main thing that everyone wanted to know about. It was a shame I had to talk about it when I just wanted to be an artist. That was tough. It made me extremely wary."

The star, who scored hits with tracks such as Anyone Of Us and Unchained Melody before going on to enjoy a successful career in musical theatre, then looked back on the entire episode and acknowledged he was simply "so young" when everything with Katie unfolded.

He said: "You become very careful about what you text people, what you say to people, and if you're a single man, I was a boy at the time - I wasn't even an adult - you become very wary about what you say to people because you're thinking 'They could sell this.' It was tough times, I was so young. This all happened before I was 18 even."

Katie has previously stood by the notorious fling, which took place while she was expecting. The former glamour model discussed their infamous encounter on the Anything Goes with James English podcast.

Speaking frankly about her life, she: "What about the thing with Gareth Gates?" To which she replied: "Yeah I took his virginity when I was six months pregnant." As James shook her head, Katie fired back: "Well you're asking me! What you looking at? Just because I was pregnant don't say I can't have a boyfriend."