"My experiences have taught me that confidence and happiness are life choices. It’s not luck.” Truer words by a woman of such strength have never been spoken.
A successful published author, a former model and a TV presenter in the UK, Katie Piper has become a household name. Her beauty, her glamor, her smile... it's easy to think that she has it all. But behind that calm and poised exterior is a woman who 10 years ago suffered horrendous abuse at the hands of someone she loved and who said he loved her.
The trauma she faced is someone no woman should have ever had to go through. However, with incredible willpower and strength, she healed herself physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. The result? A woman who stands tall and proud as she begins her journey as a wife and a mother.
Once working as a model and TV presenter, she dated a man named David Lynch for two weeks. But he wasn't the man she thought he was. He then emotionally and physically abused her in a hotel room in 2008. Two days later, when she visited an internet cafe, Lynch hired a person to scar her face with acid. That attack left her severely burned and blinded in her left eye.
Admitted in the hospital for two months, she underwent 40 operations, reported The Sun.
She was also forced to wear a plastic mask 24/7 for a period of time in order to heal and most importantly, protect herself.
No. Instead, building up her strength, she started the Katie Piper Foundation, an organization whose aim was to make sure burn victims got all the medical help they needed.
For her, this was just the beginning of her journey. She took a shot at making a film, and the debut, and her documentary My Beautiful Face got exactly the fame it deserved. It was in this documentary that she gave up her anonymity and addressed the life of victims who had gone through the same thing she had. After winning multiple awards for it, she featured on various programs in the UK to help raise awareness.
Eight years after the tragedy that nearly made her want to give up, according to Independent UK, she married a man named Richard Sutton.
Together, they have two daughters named Belle, five, and Penelope, one and a half.
According to Mirror UK, she said “I feel so lucky to have met my husband, he’s a gift from God. He’s an amazing person who changed my life for the better. He has given me our daughter and it’s one of the best things that has happened to me.”
Continuing, she explained how she was able to properly recover. “In those early days I created barriers in my head about not being able to get back to work or not feeling attractive,” she said. “When I was single and dating my now-husband, I thought ‘he’ll never fancy me. this is going to go wrong. He won’t like me. What’s the point in going?’ But then I thought, ‘What do I lose?’ My experiences have taught me that confidence and happiness are life choices. It’s not luck.”
“The whole chapter of getting married and having a baby was something I had hoped for – but I knew it was a luxury and it doesn’t happen to everybody. I felt even more joyful because I wasn’t sure if it was something I’d be privileged enough to experience," she added, telling Mirror UK.
Katie Piper is an inspiring woman who shows every woman that they too have the strength to beat past tragedies and experiences. She encourages women to be who they truly are and she is currently fighting for ways to make sure more women get help.
References:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/models-struggle-after-rape-and-acid-attack-1805400.html
https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/katie-piper-says-husband-gift-7634472
https://www.heart.co.uk/showbiz/celebrities/katie-piper-what-happened-acid-attack-before/
https://godtv.com/rape-victim-and-a-survivor-of-acid-attack-katie-pipers-story-is-truly-inspiring/
