In 2013, Katy Perry said she had found the “real truth” about the end of her marriage to Russell Brand and was keeping it “locked in my safe for a rainy day”.
Experts now reckon opening that safe could be worth up to $8m (£6.1m).
Nobody has offered her a penny.
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That hasn’t stopped anyone pricing it.
The pop star, 42, is reportedly considering a memoir or docuseries about her life, including her 14-month marriage to Brand.
Perry has not announced either.
The reports followed Brand’s sentencing on Monday to 10 years and six months in prison for one rape and three sexual assaults.
Brand, 51, denied the charges.
The jury cleared him of two further counts of rape and one of attempted indecent assault, as reported by Creatorzine.
What a Katy Perry memoir could earn
Lynn Carratt, PR and entertainment expert at E20 Communications, thinks publishers would open their chequebooks wide.
“I think we could be looking at around $6million, with $5million to $8million a realistic range for the publishing advance,” she said.
“That’s assuming it’s a full memoir and she reads the audiobook herself.
Hearing Katy tell the story in her own voice would be a huge selling point.”
She pointed to two benchmarks. Reports put Britney Spears’s deal for The Woman in Me at as much as $15m, while Bruce Springsteen reportedly received around $10m for Born to Run.
“Those are big deals even by celebrity standards, but they give you an idea of what publishers are prepared to pay when they think a book will sell around the world,” Carratt said.
Fellow PR and brand expert Chad Teixeira pitched lower, at $3m to $5m, though he wouldn’t rule out more if publishers started a bidding war.
“There’s a big difference between a celebrity memoir that touches on a former marriage and one that offers a genuinely revealing account of it,” he said.
“Publishers know a book like this would generate headlines around the world before it even hit the shelves.”
A divorce by text and a ‘rainy day’
Perry married Brand in India in October 2010.
On New Year’s Eve 2011, she later told Vogue, he asked for a divorce by text message.
In that same interview she called parts of the relationship “very controlling” and made it clear she knew more than she was willing to say.
That unfinished thought, Carratt believes, is the whole sales pitch.
“Her marriage to Russell Brand is the angle most likely to get the book serialised and put it on the front pages,” she said.
Fans have seen fragments before.
Perry’s 2012 documentary, Katy Perry: Part of Me, caught the marriage falling apart in real time.
“You see her in tears backstage, knowing she still has to go out and perform in front of thousands of people,” Carratt said.
“But how much of that period would she actually feel comfortable sharing? She’s already wealthy and successful, so even if she were offered $6m, she’d have to ask herself whether she wants those details in the public domain.”
Hollywood’s cheque could be bigger
The book might be the smaller deal.
Teixeira estimates a documentary or limited streaming series could fetch $3m to $7m (£2.3m to £5.3m).
Carratt goes further, suggesting a film package could reach $10m (£7.6m).
“Her involvement could help attract major talent and make the project more commercially appealing,” she said.
“The music licences, her producer fee and any payment for her participation would be negotiated separately and could push the total package into the $5m to $10m range, depending on the studio, budget and distribution deal.”
More than one marriage
Carratt thinks the marriage would sell the book but not fill it.
Perry’s strict religious upbringing, her leap from gospel singer to global star, her relationships, motherhood and two decades in the music industry could all carry chapters of their own.
“People forget how interesting her childhood was,” she said.
“If she’s willing to be candid about what happened along the way, I can see why publishers would compete for it.”
Why rushing it could backfire
Teixeira’s advice to Perry’s camp would be to wait.
“I’d be telling them not to rush into anything,” he said.
“There’s obviously going to be huge media interest in Katy’s perspective, but just because people want to hear something doesn’t mean she has to tell it immediately, or at all.
“I’d also be very careful about the promotional side.
You don’t want sensational headlines or a marketing campaign that makes it look as though you’re capitalising on somebody else’s trauma.”
Why it matters
For anyone building a career on their own life, this is the clearest illustration going of how an untold story gains value.
Perry has been sitting on one sentence for 13 years, and the industry has quietly let it appreciate.
The catch is that the most bankable parts of a creator’s story often involve other people, and in this case, people harmed by a man now in prison.
Celebrity memoirs have become one of publishing’s surest bets, and streamers keep buying the rights to famous lives in bulk.
Personal history is now a product category.
For now, the figures are expert guesswork rather than offers. Whether the rainy day has arrived is Perry’s call.
So far, the safe stays shut.
