Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
This Teen Ruined a Model's Life - The Katie Piper Story
21 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What led to Katie Piper's rise as a model?
Remember that famous story about that woman who broke up with that guy and then he burned her face with acid? Now the woman's name is Katie and Katie is 24 years old, living in London. Here's the thing about her. She is apparently very attractive. All her life people have been telling her that she is foing.
Sometimes strangers will come up to her on the street and they'll tell her that she is foing. And because she's got this going on for her, she has long decided that she's gonna try and make it as a model. And she legitimately has some success.
She's gotten some gigs doing some modeling, she's had a few TV appearances in the UK, like she was a presenter on a show that sold solar panels or something. She also worked on a quiz show, and sometimes she works as a ring girl at martial arts matches. So, that's cool too. And because she's working steady, she's making not a lot of money, but more money than she's ever made before.
So this is all going really well for her. But then, one day, in 2008, something happens that's gonna change her life forever. That day, Katie is checking her Facebook, and she sees that she has a message from a guy she doesn't know. And the guy is this dude, Danny. And Danny, he's described as a martial arts enthusiast, which makes it sound like he's one of those guys who is obsessed with MMA.
He also doesn't appear to have a job, so there's that. Regardless, he reaches out to Katie on Facebook to, I guess, tell her how fine he thinks she is, and to ask her out. Danny had apparently been following her modeling career for a while, like he had seen her in something, and he felt like he needed to go and find her on Facebook and try and talk to her.
Which feels creepy to me, but I guess it worked because these two start messaging back and forth, then they start talking on the phone, and eventually Katie agrees to meet up with him. So they meet up in person, and surprisingly, she's into him. And they go out on a date, and it goes well, so they go out on a second date.
And by the end of their second date, Danny likes her so much that he tells her, I love you. And while that may sound like a red flag to us, Katie actually finds Danny sweet and nice and all of those things. So after that, Danny starts coming on even stronger. He's asking to see Katie every single day. Even Katie's friends are like, are you sure about this guy? He's kind of weird.
But Katie keeps on going out with him. And as they continue to see each other, Danny starts to get a bit controlling. Like he's demanding that she not spend so much time with her friends because he wants to be with her every day. Now, keep in mind that at this point in the story, they've only been dating for two weeks. So one night, they go on another date in London.
And after the date, they decide to stay the night in a local hotel. And there, I guess Danny's expecting that they are going to smash. Which I'm sure they had done before, but on this particular night, Katie, she's just not feeling it, for whatever reason. She doesn't want to do it, and she's just gonna go to bed instead. And this pisses Danny off.
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Chapter 2: How did Katie's relationship with Danny begin?
But the main thing he keeps texting her is that he wants her to leave her apartment to go to a nearby internet cafe to read some emails that he had sent her. Because it's 2008 and I guess she doesn't have a smartphone and she can't check emails with her phone. And he spends hours begging her to do this.
Please go read this email I sent you before he finally says, okay, if you go to the cafe and read this important email I sent you, I will leave you alone forever. And this is the point where Katie finally agrees. Fine, I'll go read your stupid email. So she leaves the apartment and she starts walking toward this internet cafe.
One minute after she leaves her place, her phone rings and it's Danny. And he's asking her where she is and what she's wearing. Because what she doesn't know is that Danny has hired a goon to wait outside her apartment until she walks by and then he's going to attack her. That's why Danny wants her to leave her place so bad. That attacker friend is this guy, Stefan.
And so Stefan is outside in his hoodie and he's holding a cup of coffee full of sulfuric acid. Once he sees Katie, he walks up to her and kaboom, he throws that acid directly in her face. And there's actually CCTV footage of the whole attack. So you can see Katie here and Stefan is here and there he throws it in her face. Now, keep in mind that she's still on the phone with Danny.
So he's hearing her scream and he's probably happy that his plan worked. And so Stefan runs away while Katie also runs away into a nearby cafe and yells for help. And from there, someone calls an ambulance and she's rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile, police investigate, and they start looking for Katie's attacker.
And, you know, there's CCTV footage of him, so pretty quickly, they find Stefan, and he's got acid burns on his hands, and so, bam, police arrest him. Here's his mugshot. And it only takes a few days before Stefan flips, and he tells police that it was Danny who put him up to it. And so, bam, police arrest Danny, too. Here's his mugshot. And while that's going on, Katie is in the hospital.
And she has to undergo serious treatment. She's been blinded in her left eye. She essentially has no eyelids and her nose has been completely burned off. She also swallowed some of the acid so her esophagus and stomach are all f***ed up. She's got all kinds of damage. And so she spends 12 days in the ICU and seven weeks in the burn unit and she has to have tons of reconstructive surgeries.
But Katie is a fighter. She is not about to give up. After she recovers, she becomes a motivational speaker and she writes books and she starred in and produced in more than one documentary.
I want to be able to shout and laugh and my face to feel loose and moist. And that's what's important for me, not restoring what, you know, society says is beautiful.
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