Atomic Kitten star Natasha Hamilton reveals that she didn’t always get on well with her former bandmate, Kerry Katona, especially when they were both teenagers in the chart-topping girl group
11:23, 28 Oct 2025Updated 11:23, 28 Oct 2025
Natasha appears in the documentary Girlbands Forever (Image: BBC/Mindhouse Productions/Harry Truman)
Atomic Kitten star Natasha Hamilton has spoken about a confrontation with former bandmate Kerry Katona that left her in tears.
Natasha, who speaks about life in the girl band for the new BBC documentary series Girlbands Forever, reveals that she had a tough time when she joined the band at the age of 16 after auditioning for manager Martin O’Shea and 80s pop star Andy McCluskey, who were looking for a third girl to join original members Kerry and Liz McClarnon in 1999.
“It was difficult even at the beginning,” says Natasha. “Liz and Kerry had been together a good 18 months and they were thick as thieves. On the second audition day they put me with the girls so I went to their flat to learn some dance moves and just being an excitable 16-year-old, when Kerry was teaching me the moves, I was like, ‘Oh, what about if we did this?’”
“Kerry didn’t like that. She went back to Andy and Martin and said, ‘I don’t like her. If she’s in the band, I’m leaving.’
“I remember crying my eyes out because I just knew this was the opportunity that I’d been waiting for because it was backed by Andy and he had proper studios and there was money behind it.”
Original band members Natasha Hamilton, Kerry Katona and Liz McLarnon in 1999
To Natasha’s surprise, Andy and Martin were so impressed with her vocals and her ideas that they stuck by her. “They actually backed me,” says Natasha. “They said, ‘Well, she is in the band, Kerry, so if you wanna leave, leave.’ They just called her bluff.”
Despite their rocky start, the pair soon became close friends and Kerry moved into Natasha’s family home and started calling Natasha’s parents Mum and Dad. “We ended up slowly getting a bit more pally,” says Natasha, 43. “I was like the little sister that she tried to look after. We went on holidays together you know so we kind of went from that initial butting heads to being the best of friends.”
Jenny Frost replaced Kerry Katona in the pop band
However, Kerry left the band in 2001 when she was pregnant, and was replaced by singer Jenny Frost. Without Kerry leading the group, Natasha felt like took the weight of the band onto her shoulders.
“I can specifically remember going home one time after being on tour and both of the girls had been poorly, but the show kept on,” recalls Natasha.
“When the [other] girls were sick, we still did all our gigs because I would cover their vocal parts. Whenever I was sick the show would have to be pulled. So I had this mega load of pressure for me to always perform.”
“I can remember being sat on the living room floor and crying. And my mum and dad going, ‘What’s wrong?’ I just explained, ‘I’m struggling.’ So my mum phoned Martin and had some very strong words, as a Scouse mum would.
“She was saying, ‘You need to look after my daughter more. She’s just as important as everyone else, stop putting all the pressure on her shoulders.’”
Girlbands Forever is on BBC Two on Saturday 1 November at 9.20pm