Kerry Katona

Kerry Jayne Elizabeth Katona, was born on the 6th September 1980. Her mother, Susan Katona is a manic depressive. Kerry said, “One minute we’d be laughing and joking, the next she’d be telling me she wanted to die.” Susan got pregnant after having an affair with a married man, who subsequently abandoned her and Kerry. Kerry never knew her father, but knows his name and where in the country he lives.

While Kerry was growing up and trying to cope with her mother’s depression and suicide attempts, she also had the hard task of living with her mother’s abusive boyfriends. The pair lived together in increasingly difficult circumstances, sometimes staying in women’s refuges. Social services were called when a violent boyfriend stabbed her mother, and this is when Kerry was taken into care. “Some of Mum’s boyfriends used to beat the crap out of her and me. One night, a row started. This particular bloke slapped Mum and I saw blood spurting from her. She screamed and then he turned on me. I saw the flash of a knife blade and I thought he was going to kill me.”

Kerry then lived in a number of foster homes until she was 16. Fred and Margaret Woodall looked after Kerry in 1993, said “She told us she loved her mum and wouldn’t swap her for the world.” At 16, Kerry left the Woodall’s and got a flat of her own as she wanted to be more independent. She left Padgate High School and got a number of jobs including, working in a chip shop, working as a BT sales adviser, as a glamour model and a lapdancer. It was these shots of Kerry naked surfaced when she was in Atomic Kitten.

Atomic Kitten started off as Kerry Katona, Liz McClarnon, and Heidi Range. Even before the band started Heidi left. This is where Natasha (Tash) Hamilton arrived to take Heidi’s place. Kerry came up with the name Automatic Kitten, but the name changed to Atomic Kitten shortly afterwards. They got a contract deal with Innocent Records, and soon released their debut single, Right Now, in November 1999. Right Now went into the charts at No.10. Their second single, See Ya, reached number 6.

In August 1999, on the Smash Hits road show, Kerry met Bryan McFadden, who was a member of Westlife. Kerry refused to go out on a date with Bryan. It was only after Kerry came back from Japan that they started to get on with each other. Bryan dumped his girlfriend and managed to get Kerry on a date with him.

However, things didn’t go to well with Atomic Kitten’s as their next singles did not do so well and their first album didn’t seem to impress people. Their record company was just about to drop them when manager, Andy McCluskey persuaded the record company to let the Kittens release another single, Whole Again. This was the band’s first number one. Kerry later left the band to give birth to Molly and to look after her.