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Katie Piper has shared more details about the aftermath of her heartbreaking acid attack, which she suffered in 2008 and left her in need of 400 operations. The Loose Women star has opened up about how her facial scarring and disfigurement changed the advantages she experienced in society.

In her recently published book, Still Beautiful, she used the term pretty privilege and shared that she was treated and talked about differently prior to the incident. During a book talk for her memoir, the 41-year-old disclosed: "When I was writing the book in chronological order, I always thought that my power lied in being pretty, and I suppose it actually did in my twenties.

"My profession relied on not just what I looked like and my levels of confidence but my self-esteem as well."

When the model was just 24, a man she was dating arranged for an accomplice to throw acid on her face, leaving Katie partially blinded, with severe, permanent scarring across her face, chest, neck, arm and hands.

She explained: "I think I internalised that value and that worth that was wrapped up in my appearance, and I really had to unpack that as I wrote my book."

Katie added: "I'm mentoring burn survivors all the time who are predominantly burned in accidents, house fires, car crashes. But what happened to me was a premeditated attack.

"When a man throws acid on the face of a woman, it is to remove her most powerful currency, so nobody else will ever want her ever again. She may not have a place or currency in society."

In her defiant response, Katie affirmed: "You can only touch what you see on the surface, but there is so much more beyond that, and I sit here now, my most powerful I've ever been."

Reflecting on the attack, the TV star claimed: "I definitely had pretty privilege and I understood that more when I was attacked.

"I was very fortunate that as a victim of a violent sexual crime, I fitted the profile of a believable victim. I was white, I was blonde, I was from a middle-class family, and I was able to articulate myself," Katie added: "I was attractive, so I was believable."

Her former boyfriend David Lynch was jailed for life and a minimum of 16 years for raping Katie and arraging for Stefan Sylvestre to throw sulphuric acid at her.

Sylvestre was given a life sentence, with a minimum term of six years, in 2009 and released on licence in 2018. In 2022, he was recalled to prison for breaching his licence conditions and is thought to have since left the country.

At the time, the police launched a global manhunt for the attacker after he fled the UK, but he has still not been found.

Katie has come a long way since her trauma and has bravely rebuilt her life. She is now a campaigner for other victims, and she has been awarded an OBE for charity and burns services.