Katie Price's relentless belligerence is one of the wonders of the modern world. She can start a fight in an empty house. It's fascinating.
In Katie Price: Babies, her anger is directed at her fiancé Karl (“I love Kate. She gives me headaches. Migraines. But I'm still here. The ravages of time, the woman's reproductive system, and the accumulating evidence of scans, blood tests, and samples taken by doctors have revealed the general laws of the woman's biology at age 45 (at the time of filming). The idea of being protected is being thwarted. The same applies to her.
As she faces menopause, she hopes for a baby (her sixth child and Carl's first) to add to her chaotic but loving family. She and Karl, 34, who he believes was “on empty” during his 10 years on steroids as an avid gym goer, have been trying to conceive for three years without success. I didn't. I feel old.” Fertility doctor Carol Gilling-Smith warns against getting your hopes up. Even if mature and healthy eggs are collected, the chance of a successful pregnancy is less than 1%.
Price, who is generally astute and practical but sometimes hides that, says he would rather try it than spend forever wondering if it worked. Karl takes the cup and leaves. “Have a nice day!” the nurse says as she hands him a magazine – in a rather kind way (remember, we're pretty much the same as in the real world, but things are very different). (I'm in a parallel universe of obviously wrong celebrities) He brought a magazine with the following content: A gorgeous photo of Price.
From what I was shown in the two hours total that I was exposed to Carl (including advertising), he was far from the Peter Andre end of the spectrum of choices Price made regarding the father of her children. (On the other is Dwight Yorke, who claims she was unfaithful and has not had a relationship with Harvey, his disabled child, since birth). Karl wants to be a father and seems to have a reasonable idea of what it takes to be a good father.
“For someone like me, it's going to defy expectations,” Price says. She and her 16-year-old daughter Princess agree that she still has her period so she has a chance. (For the avoidance of doubt, this is not true. However, Karl says: [Price] I tend to listen to what you want to hear and I listen to the facts. ”)
Will it work for the couple? And from a purely television standpoint, do I care? That's tough. That's not to say there's no real emotion on display here. Couples argue and fight honestly for as long as you want. And there are some things too. While Price clearly loves children, it's also clear that she's hard as nails in her professional life as well. And then there are fleeting moments about pregnancy tests and other news, showing a slightly more tender side of her and Carl.
But it still lacks depth. It doesn't delve into the real stress and trauma of infertility. She's already blessed with five children (as Price herself states in the second episode), so what we really see is her struggle to come to terms with reality and her lack of control. The possibility of a rare thwarting of personal desires by forces beyond.
And when couples think about buying eggs from donors (you get six at a time; “It's like going to the grocery store!” Carl says), they don't think at all about the ethics of such things. It has not been done. They scroll through the catalog and list their selections. 20 years old? Even if Katie is a brunette, would Carl be better off as a blonde? Is this too smart? Or maybe it's okay to be a bit of a nerd.
This may be the point where “Katie Price: Making Babies” moves from simply unedifying television to actively rebellious television. Or maybe not. Or maybe you got there a long time ago – maybe during a vaginal ultrasound, or when you saw 10-year-old Jett, already prone to panic attacks, taking part in an on-screen jamboree When or…well, let's stop there, otherwise we'll go all day.
If you care, and for those of you who haven't read the huge amount of press this documentary has generated, considering Katie and Carl are a former couple, I'm Ruining Your Treatment Results I have no intention of doing so. Do you find both to be truly uplifting?
