She was forced to delay her dream Las Vegas wedding last summer due to the pandemic, but while Kerry Katona has already chosen her dress and the venue in Sin City, the Only Fans starrecently dropped the bombshell that she and fiancé Ryan Mahoney have now cancelled their big day.
While fans were gearing up to watch Kerry, 41, walk down the aisle for the fourth time after becoming engaged to personal trainer Ryan, 33, in 2020, she revealed, “We’re in no rush, we’re engaged and we’re happy as we are. If we do it, we do it. If we don’t, we don’t.”
Her U-turn on marriage is a huge shift for Kerry, who previously told Closer how her traumatic childhood – which saw her witness her mum attempt suicide, and take drugs for the first time at 14 – had led her to rushing into marriage so she could create her own ‘perfect family’.
But now a close friend tells Closer that for the first time, Kerry is confident and relaxed in her relationship, and no longer believes she needs a wedding to be happy.
The source says, “For the first time in her life, Kerry feels complete in a relationship. She was chasing the dream of what she thought was a ‘perfect’ family for so long and she was moulding herself around her partners.
“Kerry loves being in love but this time, she doesn’t need a piece of paper to prove it – not just yet anyway. They love being engaged and it feels really romantic.”
Ryan and Kerry first met on dating app Bumble in 2019 before he popped the question the following year.
At the time the mum-of-five admitted she had given up on finding The One before being encouraged into trying the app by her friend, Mel B’s sister Danielle Brown.
“I’ve been married, divorced, married, divorced and a widow. I actually felt that I should give up on myself and give up on love,” she said.
Earlier that year, Kerry was dealt a devastating personal blow when her third husband George Kay – the father of her youngest daughter Dylan-Jorge, eight – died of a drug overdose.
Their relationship had been volatile and she later claimed their marriage had been abusive – allegations he had previously denied following his 2015 arrest for suspicion of assault and being in possession of a taser.
Her second marriage to cab driver Mark Croft, who she has revealed was also her mum’s drug dealer, came in the midst of her battle with drugs and alcohol, and Kerry later admitted that she had hoped being his wife would give her ‘free drugs’.
At the time of their Gretna Green wedding, Kerry had been pregnant with their daughter Heidi, 15. The former couple also share a son, Max, 14.
“I was at my lowest,” Kerry said of the time, and confessed the shotgun wedding had been a rebound from her first marriage to former Westlife singer, Brian McFadden, with whom she shares her two eldest children – Molly, 20, and Lilly-Sue, 19.
Kerry has previously described him as ‘the love of my life’, but the pair split after two years in 2004 when he embarked on an affair with singer Delta Goodrem, leaving Kerry devastated.
And despite being content in her relationship with Ryan, Kerry endured a turbulent 2021 after catching Covid and being left ‘terrified’ when two of her cars were stolen within just a fortnight.
Kerry has also moved her mum Sue into her £1.9 million Cheshire mansion after she suffered a heart attack last month. But despite juggling her mum’s care with her busy work schedule, Kerry and Ryan still managed to celebrate their fourth anniversary in Spain last week.
After admitting she feels unsafe after the robberies, Kerry revealed she and Ryan have been house-hunting
in Marbella, where she hopes the family will relocate for a ‘new start’.
And the source says that although their plans for a wedding are on hold, Kerry sees Ryan as her ‘life partner’ and can’t wait to spend the rest of her life with him.
“Kerry feels really grown up and despite all of the heartbreak she’s had recently with her mum’s health scare and the robberies, she’s in a really good place. It’s also so important for Kerry that she’s become really independent, but she has fallen for Ryan and they are life partners,” they said.
“He’s a super-chilled-out guy and isn’t pushing the wedding forward at all. They are equals and support each other and Kerry feels she can truly be herself around him.
“They definitely haven’t ruled out a wedding but with house hunting in Marbella and her work being so busy, she just feels a wedding isn’t their priority right now.
The source adds, “They celebrated their fourth anniversary with a romantic dinner this week and she always jokes that she usually has two children and is divorced at this point in a relationship. She’s found her perfect match. With or without the wedding, Kerry feels she has her fairytale ending.”