Everything about Kerry Katona totally explained
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 (whom Katona claims was a habitual alcohol and drug abuser) 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 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. She later admitted to never singing on any of the group's songs, although her spoken voice was featured on the group's biggest hit "
Whole Again" which reached #1 shortly after she left the girl group. 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).
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's 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
Warrington 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 couldn't 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 was 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'd moved into about two months before the attack. On
19 July,
2007 Police found the car, which wasn't damaged, 10 miles away on Reeves Road in
Chorlton,
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'd 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. 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 spokesperson 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.
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'd 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 didn't 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'd been a coke user, but claimed that she hadn't 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.
In 2008 she was voted the fourth most hated person in Britain, with 10% of respondents surveyed citing a severe dislike for her.
Bibliography
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.
In October 2007, Katona released her first novel.
Tough Love follows the story of the Crompton family and was published by
Ebury Press.
Discography
Film Career
Kerry made her film debut in the British comedy
Three and Out, which was released on
25 April 2008.
TV Show - Crazy In Love
Kerry and Mark have filmed a reality tv programme for
MTV One called
Crazy In Love. The first two episodes aired on Sunday 17 February.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Kerry Katona'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://kerry_katona.totallyexplained.com">Kerry Katona Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
