Kerry Katona is popularly known as a member of the British female musical trio group Atomic Kitten. Her band charted at No. 1 in 19 countries including the UK charts with the release of their single Again in 2001. Katona is also known for her media presence on reality shows and other light entertainment such as comedy shows and group shows. Interestingly, she is the mother of five children and entered into three marriages. Read on to learn more about this singer.
Kerry Katona Biography
Kerry Katona’s birth name is Kerry Jane Elizabeth. She and Kay were born in September 1980 in Warrington, Cheshire, England to Sue Katon and Ron Armstrong. Katona had a troubled childhood because of the situation in her family. Sue, her mother, was deeply depressed and later committed suicide, which allowed young Katona to live in foster care and was raised by four foster families.
She attended a total of 8 schools whose identities are not revealed and was dropped out at the age of 16. After leaving school, Kerry Katona did odd jobs. At the age of 18, she participated in an audition to fill the position of the last member of a girl pop group, “Automatic Kitten”. She was cast and rose to fame through the group; she also changed the group’s name to ‘Atomic Kitten’.
Musical career with Atomic Kitten
Atomic Kitten was a trio-girl musical group that enjoyed huge success in its early days. The other original band members were Natasha Hamilton and Liz McClarnon. The group released their debut single Now in November 1999, which reached number 10 on the UK Singles Chart. Their second single More was more successful as it went to No. 6 on the chart. Following this success, the group went on an Asian tour and reached first place in Asia for the first time with Berceau.
In 2000, Atomic Kitten released their debut album Now However It Wasn’t exactly a hit, only reaching 39 in the UK album chart. With somewhat less success, their label, Innocent Records, considered dropping the pop group.
However, the band rose again with their single Encore, after persuading the record company to allow them to release another single from the failed album. It became their first single to reach No. 1 in the UK and remained there for 4 consecutive weeks. Again was released globally due to its huge success and also reached #1 in 18 countries including 6 weeks in New Zealand and Germany.
In 2001, Kerry left Atomic Kitten due to her first pregnancy and the hit video filming. Whole Again. She was replaced by former Precious singer Jenny Frost. Kerry was pregnant by Brian Mcfadden, a member of boy band Westlife. She dated him for a while and the duo got married in 2002 and after their marriage, Kerry Katona went on TV. At first, she was a presenter and hosted panel shows like Loose Women and reality TV dating shows such as elimDATE.
In February 2004, she participated in a reality show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here and won the 3rd series. She was also a judge on the RTE talent show You’re a Star which was used to select the Republic of Ireland’s Eurovision Song Contest entry. In July 2015, she took part in a show that aimed to teach her how to transform from a ladette into a woman. It aired on ITV and was titled My Beautiful Kerry
Two years later, she moved under the MTV umbrella and became the subject of reality shows: Kerry Katona: Crazy in Love, Kerry Katona: Once Again and Kerry Katona: What’s the Matter? Initially, her shows had high attendance, but when the numbers dwindled, she was dropped by MTV in August 2009.
She then participated in other dance and reality shows. In 2011, she won first runner-up in her second attempt at the reality show Celebrity Big Brother.
Kerry Katona joined pop group Atomic Kitten again in 2012 and performed on the ITV2 series: The Big Reunion where they sang their previous hit songs Right Now, The Tide Is To Hide and Whole Again. The group made further appearances over the following years before Katona left the group again in 2017. She announced this on her social media accounts. However, the reasons for his departure are unknown.
Net value
The successful pop star and media personality has managed to secure a comfortable amount which has given him a level of economic stability. Analysts put his value at $2m, or around £1.5m.
Family life: husband, children
Kerry Katona has been married three times and is separated from all of his wives. In 2002, Kerry married famous Westlife star Brian Mcfadden. She became pregnant for him before they married and gave birth to her first child, Lily after the wedding. She had a second daughter for Brian called Molly. Their marriage didn’t last very long as the couple dissolved it in 2006. After her divorce from Brian, she went back to her maiden name, Katona.
Her second marriage was to a taxi driver, Mark Small Farm. They tied the knot in 2007 in a private ceremony at Gretna Green before splitting in 2008 after a year together. However, the couple briefly got together before announcing a formal divorce in 2011. She had two children with Mark, Heidi and Maxwell.
Finally, Kerry Katona got involved with a rugby star, George Kay. She had her last child, Dylan-Jorge, with George. They divorced in 2017 after bitter accusations and disagreements.
Other interesting facts about Kerry Katona
Kerry Katona was a dancer at the age of 16. After leaving high school in 2016 without any training, she became an exotic dancer in various clubs.
She has a few books to her credit, including an autobiography; Too Much, Too Young released on October 5, 2006. In 2007 she released her first fiction novel, Tough Love and in 2008 she published another – The Footballer’s Wife. Katona is also the author of Survive the Worst and Aim for the Best. She was once a columnist for OK! Magazine, but was later discontinued.
Kerry was a Glamor model. She first posed at the age of 17 for Page 3. She has also posed for other magazines such as Zoo, New!, Now and Star.
Kerry Katona landed two endorsement deals for Iceland and Asda Supermarkets in 2008. However, in 2009 Iceland terminated her contract and said it was impossible to continue featuring Katona in its advertisements after photographs of his taking of cocaine in his bathroom appeared in the News of the World tabloid.