Kerry Katona was forced to sell pet parrot for tampons as a teen
Kerry Katona has regularly spoken about her troubled upbringing, including being placed into foster care and taking drugs as a child, and now has opened up about another harrowing ordeal.
Writing in her New! column, Katona said she was forced to sell her pet parrot, Alfie, as a teenager in order to buy a pack of tampons.
The 38-year-old mum of four said she could outdo Matt Le Blanc’s recent pre-Friends fame admission with her own experience of period poverty:
“Last week Matt LeBlanc admitted he was so poor before he got the part of Joey in Friends, he couldn’t afford to go to the dentist – and that he filed his own teeth!
“Now, I’m not one to steal his thunder, but I’ve got a tale of my own from a time I was dirt poor.
“When I was a teenager, I started my period, but couldn’t afford tampons. At the time I had an African parrot called Alfie and I sold him for £50 to Slippery Sid, who lived round the corner.
“I got my Tampax, but never did hear what became of poor old Alf!” the former Atomic Kitten singer wrote.
Period poverty is a prevalent yet rarely spoken of issue across Britain. It is estimated by the nonprofit Plan International UK that 1 in 10 children can’t afford to buy period products in the UK.
A post shared by Kerry Katona (@kerrykatona7) on Feb 7, 2019 at 10:21am PST
Katona, who has been married and divorced three times, is due to appear on the latest series of Channel 4’s Celebs Go Dating.
She told OK! Online that her eldest daughter, 16-year-old Molly, was initially mortified about the idea of her mum going on the popular dating show.
But Katona added that she’s promised Molly she won’t kiss anyone on the reality series: “She was like, ‘mum you’re not doing it, mum I’m begging you, if you put your tongue down anyone’s throat I’m never speaking to you again’ so I made a promise I wouldn’t do that.”
Celebs Go Dating is set to return on E4 this February.
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