Kerry Katona

Kerry Jayne Elizabeth Katona (previously McFadden; born 6 September 1980) is an English television presenter, writer, magazine columnist and former pop singer with girl band Atomic Kitten.

Biography

Kerry Katona was brought up by her mother and her first memory was of her mother's attempted suicide. When she was very young she was placed in care and raised by four sets of foster parents. During that time, she went to eight different schools.

She left school at age 16 to become a stripper, then joined a dance troupe that toured Europe. She gained fame for being a member of the girl group Atomic Kitten. However she left in 2001 when she became pregnant. The band enjoyed limited success in the UK, but the group had a major hit in South East Asia with Cradle while she was a member. In 2001, nude photographs of her appeared in the UK tabloid newspaper The Sunday Sport.

After Atomic Kitten

On January 5, 2002 she married Westlife star Brian McFadden at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Rathfeigh, County Meath, becoming Kerry McFadden. The couple had their honeymoon in Mauritius. Their two daughters are: Molly Marie McFadden (born August 31, 2001, Dublin, Ireland); and Lilly-Sue McFadden, (born February 3, 2003, Dublin, Ireland). She has a private pilot's licence, and is training to fly helicopters.

After marrying McFadden, she moved into television, appearing on and presenting a mix of light entertainment programmes such as Britain's Sexiest..., Loose Women and Elimidate. In February 2004, Katona won the third British series of reality TV show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and in July of that year, Brian and Kerry appeared together on The Keith Barret Show. She also appeared as a judge on the RTÉ talent show You're A Star, which was used to select Ireland's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest.

McFadden and Katona separated in September 2004 and Kerry reverted to her maiden name. McFadden wrote a song on his solo album Irish Son called Be True To Your Woman about the failed relationship. The divorce resulted in a period of depression and drug abuse for Katona for which she went into rehab.

In June 2006, Katona and McFadden were discussing custody over their children because of Katona's admitted drug abuse. Kerry told BBC Radio 4 that she has been clean ever since her stint in rehab.

After Brian McFadden

Katona has since starred in an Irish drama called Showbands. In July 2005, she headlined My Fair Kerry on ITV, where she was taught airs and graces to transform herself from ladette to lady. Despite the title of this program, the conclusion she publicly drew from the program was that "airs and graces don't mean nothing when you've got kids to look after."

In 2005, Dave Cunningham, a former teenage sweetheart, moved in with her for seven months before the relationship ended. Katona is now married to taxi driver Mark Croft. Katona and Croft were married at Gretna Green in Scotland on Wednesday, February 14 2007 in a private ceremony with 2 friends as witnesses. Six days later, on February 20 2007, Kerry gave birth to Heidi Elizabeth Croft six weeks early. The baby was born at Macclesfield General Hospital weighing 5lbs, delivered by Caesarean section.

On July 15, 2007, Katona, Croft, and Heidi Elizabeth were taken hostage at their £1.5 million home in Wilmslow. Three home invaders held them captive and threatened to rape and kill them. They took the family's mobile phones to make sure they could not contact anyone. Katona was held at knifepoint downstairs whilst the other men forced her husband to show them where the valuables were kept. None of them were physically harmed but the burglars eventually left with a blue BMW and other valuables, the total loss being in the region of £100,000-150,000. The family moved in with relatives but soon returned to the house, which they had moved into about two months before the attack. On 19 July, 2007 Police found the car, which was not damaged, 10 miles away on Reeves Road in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. Kerry and Mark have since bought an Alsatian to guard their house.

On July 19, Katona was admitted to The Priory hospital suffering from bi-polar disorder. Her spokesman, Max Clifford, stated she had suffered from the disorder for some time but her recent symptoms were brought on by the armed robbery.

She announced in late September 2007 that she was expecting her fourth child, her second with husband Mark Croft. It was feared that she suffered a miscarriage but further examination found the foetus was still alive and due in May 2008. On 30 December 2007 she announced that her fourth child would be a boy named Maxwell Mark after Max Clifford and her husband Mark. Five weeks before the due date, and after two days of labour, she gave birth to a 5lb 4oz baby on 11 April 2008, at 5.42 pm.

Although her celebrity status has declined, Katona has a regular column in OK! Magazine, has had the job of being the spokeswoman for Iceland frozen food stores in newspaper and television advertisements and has also been paid to promote Asda. She is represented by publicist Max Clifford.

She is a Patron of The Shannon Bradshaw Trust, a charity based in Warrington, helping children with life-threatening conditions, and their families.

Katona is currently involved in a legal dispute with her former husband Brian McFadden attempting to gain custody of their daughters.

On August 21, 2008, Katona was declared bankrupt at the High Court in London after failing to pay a tax bill.

On August 25, 2008, Katona checked into a private clinic in north-west London to have several cosmetic surgery procedures performed. These included liposuction, laser treatment on her stretch marks, and an operation to reduce her 34GG breasts to a size 34DD. Reported to cost £15,000, the procedures were filmed and footage will be featured on her forthcoming MTV reality show Whole Again.

Controversy and criticism

Katona has been criticised for smoking during her pregnancies. She was spotted having a cigarette while pregnant with Heidi in 2006, which led to Kerry's spokesman admitting that she was still smoking four cigarettes a day and "desperately trying to stop altogether." However, she also admitted on more than one occasion that she was still smoking during her fourth pregnancy in 2007. She also said that she had consumed alcohol during this pregnancy. Her comments resulted in The Foundation for the Study of Infant Death (FSID) warning Katona that her baby is up to 15 times more likely to die from a cot death as a result of her smoking. The British Heart Foundation also provided public warnings which condemned Katona's decision. Katona continued to defend her behaviour after these statements were made.

In August 2007, it was claimed that Katona had refused to take a drugs test to prove that she was fit to look after her children.

In the later months of 2007, it appeared that Katona's popularity with the public had declined. She was voted the second worst celebrity mother in a poll in September, was forced to deny being on drugs following an unusual appearance on GMTV in October, and in November, she was voted the most irritating individual in Britain. In December, her Iceland advertisement was voted the second worst celebrity ad. Later in the month, she said that she felt "victimised" by the public and insisted that she did not deserve to be called a bad mother.

Appearing on the 12 February 2008 edition of Channel 4's Richard and Judy show, Katona admitted that she had taken cocaine, but claimed that she had not taken any drugs for the past three years. She also claimed that the press were constantly making up stories about her and the reports of her losing her position as spokesperson for the Iceland chainstores were untrue and that she was in the process of renewing her contract with them.

During season 6 of the quiz show Mock The Week Katona was the butt of at least one derisory joke by Frankie Boyle per episode.

Appearing on the 22 October 2008 live epsidode of ITV's This Morning show, Katona's speech appeared to be slurred prompting viewers to phone in during the interview to ask if she is OK. .

Biography

Emily Herbert wrote a biography about Katona in September 2005 called Kerry: Story of a Survivor.

Katona released her own autobiography on October 5 2006 titled Too Much, Too Young with ghostwriter Fanny Blake and Kerry's mother who consented to have her story told as well.

... I put my mum's life story in the book as well ... so people could understand my mum ... my mum was involved in the book heavily ... I asked my mum if I could do the book first ...

In October 2007, Katona released her first novel. Tough Love follows the story of the Crompton family and was published by Ebury Press.

• Katona, Kerry (5 October 2006). Too Much, Too Young: My Story of Love, Survival and Celebrity. Ebury Press. ISBN 9780091913908.
• Katona, Kerry (1 March 2007). Survive the Worst and Aim for the Best. Ebury Press. ISBN 9780091917548.
• Katona, Kerry (18 October 2007). Tough Love. Ebury Press. ISBN 9780091923198.
• Katona, Kerry (3 April 2008). The Footballer's Wife. Ebury Press. ISBN 9780091923242.

Discography

Date	Title	UK Chart
Albums
March 16, 2000	Right Now	39
Singles
1999	"Right Now"	10
2000	"See Ya"	6
2000	"Cradle"
2000	"I Want Your Love"	10
2000	"Follow Me"	20
2001	"Whole Again"	1 (4 weeks)

Film career

Katona began her career in film by playing the lead role in an Irish made-for-tv movie called Showbands in 2005. The film aired on Irish television station RTE This was followed by Showbands 2, a year later. Katona also made an appearance in the British comedy Three and Out.

External links

• Kerry Katona This Morning Interview
• Kerry Katona at IMDb
• Kerry Katona's biography at Random House