Fans were left reeling when Kerry Katona seemingly confirmed she and her long-term fiancé Ryan Mahoney had ended their relationship.
The former Atomic Kitten pop star – whose mum Sue has been in hospital due to blood clots on her lungs – shared a video from Sue’s bedside to update fans on her progress. While one follower tried to keep things light, commenting, ‘So much love to you both – and is the doctor single?’, Kerry, 44, swiftly replied with, ‘No, but I am!’
And, now, after updating her followers on her new relationship status, insiders tell Closer that there were multiple catalysts in Kerry and Ryan’s apparent fall out.
A source says, ‘There are a million and one things – all small faults that they’d battled with, which just grew into gaping chasms that they couldn’t ignore any longer.
‘They’ve had rows over her work and personal choices and, in the end, Kerry told pals she couldn’t live with him resenting her. Ryan’s frustrated that Kerry – in his view – didn’t put their relationship first, despite saying she would. But Kerry insists she did everything to make it work, it’s just her best wasn’t good enough.’
Our source also reveals that Kerry’s renewed close friendship with troubled former model Katie Price – whom she’s due to star in panto with this year – also upset Ryan.
Closer recently reported how there were fears that Kerry is following Katie’s obsession with surgery. Kerry is no stranger to going under the knife, having had a total of total of three boob jobs; this year alone she has had a nose job, eyelid surgery and a brow lift.
The source says, ‘Ryan thinks Kerry's relationship with Katie is toxic. Since she’s been back on the scene, he feels like Kerry's changed, as if she’s trying to relive her past and is acting more like a teenager. It caused even more friction between them and ultimately wrecked their marriage plans.’
Kerry had years of heartache before she met Ryan, 35, and settled into one of the most stable periods of her life.
Her first marriage to former Westlife hitmaker Brian McFadden – with whom she shares Molly, 23, and Lilly-Sue, 21 – ended in 2004 after two years, with Brian admitting to cheating on his then wife-to-be with a lap dancer on his stag do.
Kerry then wed taxi driver Mark Croft – the father of her middle children Heidi, 17, and Maxwell, 16 – in 2007, but their four-year marriage was plagued by allegations of infidelity on both sides, and claims he ‘had an obsession with spending her money’.
Then, in 2014, the mum of five tied the knot for the third time to former rugby player George Kay, with the pair welcoming daughter Dylan-Jorge, now 10. However, Warrington-born Kerry has made open allegations about what went on behind closed doors, accusing her ex-husband – who died in 2019 after ‘eating a ball of cocaine’ – of horrific domestic abuse, claiming he would beat her every day.
In 2015, he was arrested on suspicion of attacking her and being armed with a taser, before they split for good in 2018.
Kerry then met PT Ryan the same year after they connected on dating app Bumble. Speaking exclusively to Closer about the relationship in 2021, the smitten star said she ‘spent time learning to love herself’ after her previous relationships and therefore it was a ‘slow burner’ with Ryan.
In August 2020, he popped the question to Kerry, but shetold Closer earlier this year ‘she wasn’t fussed when they got married’. They had originally planned to elope to Las Vegas, but Kerry revealed that her daughters pleaded, ‘Don’t you dare do that without us!’
Serious cracks in the romance started to appear this year. After going under the knife for a nose job in May, Kerry temporarily moved in with her mum during her recovery, revealing she felt ‘unsupported’ by her fiancé, who’d been in London getting a tattoo. A few months before, Closer reported that Ryan struggled with the concept of men fantasising over his fiancée on OnlyFans.
Earlier this year, Kerry also joked that she had given her husband-to-be a ‘pass’ to have a baby with another woman, as she didn’t want to deprive him of having his own children.
Closer’s source says that was one of a multitude of issues the couple faced. ‘Kerry and Ryan have had rows over her career. He doesn’t like OnlyFans and men sliding into her DMs, and he struggles with her being the breadwinner. He felt like her career always came first.
‘He also really wanted to become a dad and have a biological child of his own, and that was always a bit of an elephant in the room. Kerry’s said she’s gutted she couldn’t give Ryan that, but says she can’t be made to feel bad about something that is out of her control.’