Katie Price swings Cambridge University debate

Katie Price swings Cambridge University debate
Katie Price swings Cambridge University debate (Image credit: AP/Press Association Images)

Katie Price has triumphed in a highbrow debate at Cambridge University, defending women's ability to juggle a successful career and family life. The model and reality TV star opposed the motion 'this house believes the only limit to female success is female ambition' and her 10-minute speech in front of 800 students helped achieve a landslide victory of 497 votes to 39, with 51 abstentions, The Daily Mail reports. Katie, 33, claimed she was not a good public speaker, but despite swearing and forgetting her lines, she earned herself a loud cheer and defeated the opposing team, which included Boris Johnson's younger sister Rachel, editor of The Lady. Businesswoman and mother-of-three Katie admitted she wasn't particularly clever at school, but insisted: "You have to be realistic... it's all about reaching your goals." The former glamour model joked: "If you play Trivial Pursuit with me I will definitely lose." She added: "I've made lots of mistakes, but I have got no regrets apart from the Eurovision, I don't know what I was thinking." But she told students her life motto is, 'there is no such thing as can't, because I can'. There were gasps from the audience during Rachel Johnson's speech when she commented: "The sky is the limit or in your case a 10-part series on Sky called Katie." Katie's appearance came just three months after she made a speech at the Oxford Union. President of the Cambridge Union, Katie Lam, said: "I decided to invite Katie Price because she's a prominent public figure who is very popular among, and represents the aspirations of a large number of, women and girls in the UK, and I thought her perspective would be a valuable one to add to the debate."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.