Brian McFadden and Kerry Katona divorced in 2004. She says he's been a 'sh*t dad'.

Kerry Katona has spoken about co-parenting with her first husband Brian McFadden, or lack thereof.

During a podcast interview this week, the former Atomic Kitten star called the Irish singer a "sh*t dad" for not looking after his children financially.

Katona insisted she didn't want any of McFadden's money when they divorced in 2004, but the fact he hasn't been there as a father "really bothers" their daughters, Molly, 21, and Lilly-Sue, 20.

"I [told him], 'Look if you don't want me, you don't love me, I don't want your money. Just give me half the money from the house that we sell, and I will sign a piece of paper. Just give me my kids'," Katona recalled on the On A Mission podcast.

"But as a dad surely he has got a duty of care?" she was asked. "He was a sh*t dad, he was a sh*t dad," Katona said.

"I think that really bothers the two girls especially now because he is a great dad with [his other daughter] Ruby."

Katona and McFadden first started dating in 1999 – she was one-third of Atomic Kitten, while he was in the boy band Westlife.

The couple married in 2002 and welcomed two daughters, Molly and Lilly-Sue, before splitting two years later.

Image: Getty.

Reflecting on their marriage nearly 20 years on, Katona says it was never fit to last, with McFadden cheating on his wife-to-be at his buck's party.

"I think after he first cheated on me on his stag do you know the trust had just gone," she said on Slingo's Getting Lippy Gossip Show.

"But now I analyse things that was [sic] a trigger for me when Brian left me because it was like me [sic] mum always tried to leave me."

Katona had a tough upbringing. Her mother Sue had bipolar disorder, and offered her speed when she was just 14, telling her it was sherbet. 

She was in and out of living with foster parents, before moving home and getting a job dancing in a nightclub. Then she was introduced to Andy McCluskey, who was forming a girl group. Atomic Kitten was born. 

In 2001, the band scored an international number one smash with 'Whole Again'. But Katona had just quit. She was pregnant with her and McFadden's first baby, Molly. She then welcomed Lilly in 2003.

After the couple split, Katona soon found herself a new career as a reality TV star. 

She won I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and scored a string of her own shows, including My Fair Kerry and Kerry Katona: What’s The Problem? about her bipolar disorder. 

She got married a second time, to taxi driver Mark Croft, whom she claims she met when he was allegedly supplying cocaine to her mother. They had two children, Heidi and Maxwell. 

While McFadden dated Australian singer Delta Goodrem from 2004. They got engaged, but ended their relationship in 2011.

Image: Getty.

"There is so much I’d like to say. I was really unhappy and I didn’t know how to get out. I learned. I got there in the end," Goodrem told Vogue Australia in 2012.

McFadden retaliated through a Twitter rant.

"Sometimes silence is golden. People love to try and deflect attention from their own downfalls onto others," he wrote.

"And for the record. I’ve seen it all before!! Randomly want to thank Vogue Williams for making me the happiest man on the planet."

In 2012, McFadden married DJ Vogue Williams after dating for a year. They celebrated their marriage in an elaborate Tuscan ceremony, before announcing their divorce three years later.

McFadden has also done his fair share of reality TV, participating on the dance show Stepping Out and co-hosting dating show Stand By Your Man and celebrity cooking show Who's Doing the Dishes.

Meanwhile, Katona was declared bankrupt twice – first in 2008 and then in 2013. She split with Croft and started a new relationship with George Kay, a former professional rugby league player who’d spent three years in prison for blackmail.

She had a daughter, Dylan-Jorge, with her third husband Kay, but then split, saying the marriage was abusive. Kay died of a drug overdose in 2019.

Also in 2019, McFadden announced his engagement to PE teacher Danielle Parkinson on Twitter after three years of dating. Two years later, they welcomed a daughter, Ruby.

McFadden admits he wasn't there for his eldest daughters as much as he is for Ruby.

“I was only a kid myself when I had Molly and Lilly, and I was at the height of my career in Westlife then," he told Closer in 2022.

"But with Ruby, I have a lot more time so I can be at home and be a hands-on dad."

During the pandemic, Katona decided to join adult subscription site OnlyFans. There she started sharing photos of herself, including topless shots, with her subscribers, as well as photos of her feet.

Before long she was making tens of thousands of pounds a month – going from bankrupt to millionaire. Katona has used some of the money to open an online clothing store and to start a dating app with her fiancé, Ryan Mahoney. 

In September 2022, Katona was pictured with McFadden for the first time since they divorced.

In a recent interview with MailOnline, Katona and McFadden's eldest daughter, Lily, admitted she has no interest in getting married after watching her parents do it multiple times.

Asked what she had learned from her parents, she said: 'Not to get married!"

"I want a wedding because I want to wear a big dress and all the gifts, but I studied law at college, and it may sound really cynical but it's just a legal contract," she said.

"It's always seemed odd to me that to prove your love for someone you should sign a piece of paper that's legally binding. For me, I just need to trust that they will stay."

As for Katona, she admits that while her marriages have been turbulent, she doesn't regret them.

"I’ve not made mistakes, they’ve all been lessons."

While McFadden told Closer: "You live and learn, you go through life living and learning! 

"Getting married is a great thing, but if the marriage isn't working there's nothing wrong in walking away from each other.

"I have no regrets about any of my marriages or any of my relationships. Everything I've gone through in my life has got me to where I am today."

Feature image: Getty.