Kerry Katona has opened up about her troubled childhood, admitting that her own mistakes have become a burden for her children. The 31-year-old former Atomic Kitten star, who has four children, says she is determined to give them a better life than she had.
Katona's earliest memory is of watching her mother slit her wrists when she was just three years old. Her mother, who was manic-depressive, self-harmed until Kerry was 15. As a result, Katona has the names of her two eldest daughters, Mollie and Lilly, tattooed on her wrists to cover her mother's scars.
Growing up as an only child, Katona became her mother's carer from a very young age. She attended eight different schools, had four sets of foster parents, and lived in three refuges. Now, at 31, she is living in her 47th house but says she is the most level-headed she has ever been.
Katona's family tree is complicated. Her mother had an affair and became pregnant with her. Her birth father left when she was six weeks old. Later, her mother married a man who was 30 years older, only to leave him for a woman. Katona says she always tried to please people and make them laugh as a defence mechanism, feeling worthless and wanting to be loved.
Four years ago, Katona hired a private investigator to find her birth father. She received a photo and video of him but chose not to meet him, fearing the impact on his family. He died a few weeks later, and she now regrets not meeting him, especially after discovering she had half-siblings. She says that void will never be filled.
Katona has four children because she wants them to have each other if anything happens to her. She says every breath she takes is for her kids, and she wants them to be much better than she was.
