Katie Price has finally begun to realise that she has been deceived by her new husband and is now working out how to extricate herself from the marriage, according to sources close to the star. The 48-year-old has been publicly maintaining a brave face after flying to Dubai, where Lee Andrews is being held in jail over fraud allegations. It has now emerged that he needs to stump up at least £100,000, and possibly closer to £150,000, to secure his release. Privately, however, Katie has come to the painful conclusion that their whirlwind marriage is effectively over.

She no longer believes Lee, 42, can come up with the money himself, and she has no intention of paying it for him after he has repeatedly lied to her about his wealth and background.

After first declaring him missing and then claiming he had been held for spying, Katie finally visited him at the notorious Al Awir Central Prison on Wednesday after flying out to Dubai. She later told fans she had to go to courts, prison and the police station, adding that she was exhausted and had no idea what the day would bring. Behind the scenes, however, a different picture has emerged.

A source close to the star said she is most tired of Lee himself and has at last begun to accept that friends were right to warn her that her new man was not the billionaire he pretended to be, but rather a chancer whose lifestyle has now caught up with him. Far from possessing a £1 billion fortune, it transpires he does not even have one ten thousandth of that sum available to buy his way out of prison.

Katie has concluded that the only way Lee will get out of the notorious jail is if she herself stumps up the cash, something she now recognises would be reckless and potentially damaging to her own already fragile financial situation. As a former bankrupt, she is well aware of the risks involved in throwing good money after bad. Instead, she has started to plan a life without her husband indefinitely.

Despite this private resolution, friends say Katie will still try to make the most of the latest drama, continuing her long-standing habit of monetising the chaos that seems to follow her wherever she goes. Her followers, after all, have grown accustomed to the endless scrapes and revelations that have defined much of her public life in recent years.

A close friend of the star told the Daily Mail that Katie is in pieces. To the outside world she wants to keep up the bravado, but inside she cannot believe how Lee has made her look. He has pulled the wool over lots of people’s eyes, especially women, and now that everything is being played out in the public eye she finds herself at the forefront of the con.

It is far from certain whether Lee will be able to secure his release from Dubai’s Al Awir jail even if he can raise the six-figure sum without his wife’s help, something those who know him doubt he can manage. Overnight she learned that the final figure he needs could be even higher, closer to £150,000, which has done nothing to endear him to her any further.

Lee remains stuck inside what has been described as a hellhole of a prison. Unless Katie or someone else comes up with tens of thousands of pounds to get him out, he is unlikely to be released any time soon. The added complication of Katie’s own financial history makes the situation even more fraught. Whether she could even raise the money if she wanted to is a serious question.

It is increasingly looking as though Lee’s conman lifestyle has finally caught up with him, and Dubai is said to be one of the last places anyone would want to be locked up under such circumstances. Katie herself is described as confused and furious, yet ultimately it appears she will be heading back to the divorce court once again, just as she has done multiple times before.

Her family, meanwhile, are growing increasingly concerned about her mental health and the welfare of her children. The friend continued that Katie’s family are very close to her and are all deeply worried. She is spending too much time away from her kids while being halfway around the world dealing with this latest crisis. Before his arrest, Lee had sent a series of text messages to the mother-of-five claiming he was being kidnapped following an international manhunt. This led Katie to plead publicly with fans and authorities to help find her missing husband.

Now she has been telling friends that the entire situation has left her feeling both furious and deeply embarrassed.

The fiasco meant Katie spent her birthday without her husband and found herself swamped by allegations that she was somehow involved in his disappearance, with some dismissing the whole episode as a tasteless media stunt. Even close friends who have supported her through numerous bankruptcies, nine engagements, four marriages and three messy divorces have previously expressed concerns that she had played a part in allowing the situation to escalate. Her four-month marriage has also been tainted by claims from women, some of them Lee’s former lovers, that he scammed them and that his new wife should run for the hills.

While Lee denies being a conman, he is said to be subject to a travel ban by UAE authorities after allegedly forging a former partner’s signature to obtain a £200,000 mortgage in Dubai. This would have prevented him from flying back to see Katie regardless of his imprisonment, which is reportedly linked to a civil matter involving forged signatures on loan paperwork.

The drama has resulted in heated rows between Katie and her sister Sophie and mother Amy, who are at their wits’ end over the impact Lee has had on the family. They ordered Katie not to fly out to see him, but she ignored them. The source said Katie has fallen out with her family again. Her sister Sophie is fuming about the whole situation, as is their mum Amy, who is not well and is struggling with the added stress.

The tension has really taken a toll on Amy, and Sophie tried to make Katie see this before she left. She was explicitly told not to go to Dubai but went anyway. The advice landed on deaf ears, and this week Katie accused them of meddling in her relationship, leading to another big bust-up. They are really sick of the situation with Lee now. They have never been introduced to or spoken with him and have told Katie they never want to.

Throughout it all, Katie continues to navigate the very public fallout while privately coming to terms with the end of yet another chapter in her turbulent romantic life. The realisation that she has been deceived has been painful, but sources say she is now focused on protecting herself and her children from further damage. Whether she will ultimately pay any part of the sum needed to free Lee remains highly unlikely. Instead, attention is turning to how she will move forward once again, drawing on the resilience that has seen her through so many previous storms.

Her family’s concern for her wellbeing and that of her five children remains at the forefront, even as the latest chapter in her chaotic personal life continues to unfold in the full glare of the media spotlight.