Kerry Katona admits literacy struggles meant she couldn’t read restaurant menus

Kerry Katona was living with severe dyslexia and rarely attended school in her early years, meaning that as an adult, her manager had to be on hand to translate restaurant menus for her.

The 42-year-old, who didn’t learn to read and write until her 20s, admitted she was so “uneducated” with food that she even misunderstood what some meals were, previously believing that ordering fajitas meant eating “dead babies”.

Kerry revealed all about her tricky past, around the time when she was a first-time bride to Westlife star Brian McFadden, in a new interview for Ireland AM on Virgin Media One.

“I remember when I first moved to Ireland with Brian [in 2002]. I was pregnant [and] I couldn’t read or write,” she confessed.

However, she used her alone time while her husband was on tour to enrol herself on a “typing course” which taught her literacy skills for the first time in her life.

The singer turned reality TV star says she vividly remembers awkward moments in her early days – and one time comes to mind in particular.

“I’ll never forget, we were in a Mexican restaurant and [someone I was with] ordered fajitas and I was like, ‘Oh my God, she’s going to eat a dead baby,'” she shuddered.

Alarmed Kerry had confused the word for “fajitas” for “foetus”, explaining: “That’s how uneducated I was with food.”

She explains her early literacy struggles on her difficult home life, mentioning that she’d had eight sets of foster parents and stayed in three refuges.

“I went to eight different schools which I was very rarely in…. I couldn’t even spell the world orange at one point!” she exclaimed.

However, she was inundated with support from followers when she shared a snippet from the show on Instagram, with @caorabui praising: “Like her or not, she is very relatable and when she makes mistakes and is honest about them, fair play to her for bouncing back every time she has fallen down. Respect!”

Her adult literacy course paid off – and a newly empowered Kerry went on to write six books.

These include her heart-rending 2022 memoir Whole Again – Love, Life and Me, which saw her reduced to tears as she relived her past during the writing process.

The star, who first shot to fame at the tender age of 18, had previously released two other autobiographies, but she promised that her third attempt would see her “baring her soul like never before”.

Throughout her life, she has been plagued by drug addiction, toxic relationships, and both mental and physical health issues – but she has emerged triumphantly on the other side of them.

While reliving it all to record her audiobook last year, she took to her Instagram account to share her pain with over 815,000 followers.

“Just reading it all out loud… has already had me in tears,” she revealed one morning, explaining that she’d been “praying for strength”.

“I know it’s in the past but the trauma attached to it is still so heavy on my heart and my gut! Life isn’t always rainbows and unicorns… but got to stare this s*** in the face and be done with it!!!!” she declared courageously.