Mum-of-five Kerry Katona has expressed her heartfelt support for Rivals star Emily Atack after the actress revealed she suffered from sepsis following the birth of her first child and was subsequently trolled over her weight loss on social media.
Emily Atack's Sepsis Ordeal
The 36-year-old actress, who welcomed her son Barney with fiancé Alistair Garner in 2024, opened up about her difficult pregnancy and postpartum health issues in a recent interview with Grazia magazine. Emily stated: "I was very ill after the birth. I had sepsis, I couldn't leave the house for weeks. It was awful." She added: "My body holds all my trauma as well as my happiness and joy. I went through a very difficult pregnancy."
Trolling Over Appearance
Emily revealed that during her pregnancy, she faced criticism for being "enormous," and after losing weight, she was accused of using weight-loss injections. She pleaded for understanding: "I'm just asking for people for a little bit of patience and understanding at such a complex thing. Women's bodies change all the time. I am so done with defending it."
Kerry Katona's Words of Wisdom
Writing in her column for New magazine, Kerry Katona, 45, shared her empathy and advice. She said: "I really felt for Emily Atack when I read she'd suffered from sepsis after her son's birth and that was the reason she'd lost a lot of weight. Apparently, she got trolled by people calling her 'too skinny'. You can't win, can you? First of all, I know what it's like to go through a tricky birth, my DJ's labour was awful. And the last thing I'd want to do after is have to defend myself against trolls."
Kerry offered direct advice to Emily: "Never feel you have to explain yourself to anyone, Emily. People will always judge, you won't be everyone's cup of tea, so just do you."
Emily's Journey and Upcoming Wedding
Emily, who recently reprised her role as TV host Sarah Stratton in the second series of Rivals, the adaptation of Jilly Cooper's novel, is now on the mend health-wise and looking forward to her wedding to Alistair Garner in September. Earlier this week, she also opened up for the first time about becoming pregnant as a teenager while in an "awful, abusive" relationship. Speaking on the How To Fail With Elizabeth Day podcast, she recounted her troubled teens after her parents split, saying: "I was hanging around in the wrong crowds. I was sexually active with older boys and men... I remember when my dad left... I was pregnant, and I was very young. I was in this awful, abusive, horrible relationship, and I fell pregnant."
Emily rose to fame as Charlotte Hinchcliffe in The Inbetweeners and has since built a successful acting career.
