Kerry Katona “didn’t fully grieve” after the death of her ex-husband George Kay. The Atomic Kitten star was left devastated when her former partner – the father of her 11-year-old daughter DJ – died in 2019.
George died after suffering a drug overdose at a hotel but Kerry didn’t have time to process her emotions because she had to continue working to support her five children.
In her column for OK! magazine, Kerry heaped praised on fellow pop star Cheryl for fronting a new beauty campaign almost a year after the death of her ex Liam Payne, the father of her eight-year-old son Bear.
Kerry said: “Cheryl has returned to work for the first time since Liam Payne’s death with a new Nivea campaign – and I’m glad to see her back.
“It can be tough knowing what to do after losing someone, I’ve been in the position of losing your child’s father and it’s awful.”
Kerry went on to add of her own experience: “I kept working through that time because I had four other children and no support, so I had no choice.
“But I do think that meant I didn’t fully grieve or deal with it as I should have, so it was the right decision for Cheryl to take a step back.”
Kerry has previously spoken about how she suffered domestic abuse at the hands of George.
In her autobiography, Kerry Katona: Whole Again – Love, Life and Me, the former Atomic Kitten star revealed the challenges she has faced.
She said how reliving those memories for her third memoir was “traumatic”.
She said: “I thought it was quite therapeutic to get it down, maybe like therapy. It turned out to be traumatic, every minute of it. I hated every second of it.
“It was pure fear, anxiety. At one point I was like just cancel it, I don’t want to do it, I don’t want it out. There is shame and a guilt with it as well, all I can say is pure fear, just scared. Even though George is not with us anymore, he still has a hold on me.
“I am one of these people where you look at my life, I have been through so much and I just crack on with it. I have had therapy, I have had bits and bobs, but when you’re going into so much detail, I don’t want to deal with it, I just want to crack on.
“Your writing it and reliving it again, it’s not nice. I was an emotional mess, I was crying, I couldn’t breathe.”