Kerry Katona has poignantly shared her experience growing up in foster care ahead of Christmas Day on Sunday.
The former Atomic Kitten singer, 42, admits she often felt 'unloved' as a child and recalls how the stigma that comes with being in foster care stuck with her throughout her school years.
Mum-of-five Kerry – who recently had a painful procedure to get a new smile – explains how the festive season can be 'a lonely time' for kids growing up in care as she looks back on her own 'daunting' experience living with a foster parent.
The former Queen of the Jungle entered the care system at the age of 13 and later stayed with four different foster families, due to the star's mum suffering with mental health issues throughout her daughter's teenage years.
"Christmas can be a lonely time for children in foster care. You feel unloved and think, 'Is it my fault? Have I done something wrong?' And that stigma stays with you even during school," Kerry confesses.
"A lot of the teachers looked down on me as if it was my fault and I was some naughty child."
Writing in her latest column for OK! magazine, the star adds: "I wasn’t in a foster home because I was a naughty child, I was in a foster home because my mum picked her abusive fella over me. That wasn’t my fault."
She goes on to recall how even going to the bathroom in someone else's house could be daunting but her experience in foster care means she is always overly friendly and welcoming whenever someone visits her home these days.
Kerry explains how she always wants her guests to feel really welcome because she knows "what it's like to live with people you don't know."
The star opened up about her childhood on Steph's Packed Lunch earlier this year, as she reunited with her foster dad during an emotional moment on the Channel 4 show.
Kerry – who is mum to Molly, 21, Lilly, 19, Heidi, 15, Max, 14, and eight-year-old DJ – attended eight different schools as a teenager, and ended up staying in three refuges as her mum Sue struggled with her mental health.
"I stayed in several foster homes and refuges but eventually I was taken in by an amazing couple, Mag and Fred. Mags sadly passed away six years ago, but I still remain really close to Fred," Kerry explained during the pre-recorded film in February.
Kerry then met up with her foster father in an emotional reunion where she remembered the first time that she entered her new home with them.
She recalled: "The first I came in here, I came in the kitchen and Mags said that I opened all the cupboards and I was like, ‘Oh my god you’ve got food in your cupboards.’ I was like, ‘Look at all the food in there!’"
Fred also recalled their first meeting and said his wife described young Kerry to him as she said: "We’ve got a lovely girl here, but you can’t get a word in edgeways with her, but you’ll like her when you see her."
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