Kerry Katona wants her fourth wedding to lead to a "partnership" that lasts.
Kerry Katona
The former Atomic Kitten singer is engaged to fitness instructor Ryan Mahoney and following her three failed unions to Brian McFadden, Mark Croft and the late George Kay, Kerry finally feels in the right place mentally to get wed and stay with her man forever.
Kerry, 40, and Ryan, 32, plan to elope and tie the the knot with just a few people present - which will include her five kids, Molly, Lilly-Sue, Heidi, Maxwell and DJ - and she is confident that this relationship is for the long-term because she had finally learned to love herself before getting together with the hunk.
In an interview on 'Loose Women' on Friday (23.07.21), she said: "We're in no rush to get married whatsoever, Ryan even said himself it's overrated. For me, I like to call him my husband, he likes to call me his wife.
"We're in no rush to do it. When the time comes we'll hop on a plane and we'll go away.
"The difference this time in my relationship - I was single for two years - is I've had to learn to love me and accept me and my failures and what I've achieved ... Before, I relied on the men making me happy. Now, I make me happy, Ryan enhances it.
"I don't want a wedding, I want a marriage, I want a partnership."
Kerry admits after her marriage to George - who died from a drugs overdose in 2019, two years after they split - she didn't think she would be in a happy relationship again because she wasn't worthy of being loved, but meeting Ryan changed her life.
She explained: "When I separated from my third husband I think I was only about 36 and I thought, 'Is this it now?' because I'd had so many failed marriages in my head I thought, 'Well I don't deserve to be in a relationship. It's over and done with.'
"Then I went on a date with Ryan, I went online, I thought, 'Well it's a free meal.' It made me realise I do deserve to be loved and I do deserve to love somebody else.
"I'm 40, I'm a good person. I never thought when I was little I want to be married four times and have five kids to three different men and I want all my kids to have a different surname. It wasn't my dream, life happened, but for so long I blamed myself and I am getting married for the fourth time and I am excited about it.
"It took a long time to get excited about it. At one point Ryan actually questioned me, 'Do you want to get married?' I was like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, just don't talk about it, we'll just go off and do it.'
"The funny thing is normally at this point I'd already be divorced and we're not even married yet, so we must be doing something right."
Tagged in Brian McFadden Kerry Katona Mark Croft