Kerry Katona: 'Stacey only smokes Silk Cut'

Kerry Katona: 'Stacey only smokes Silk Cut'
Kerry Katona: 'Stacey only smokes Silk Cut' (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Kerry Katona has defended smoking mother-to-be Stacey Solomon by claiming it does not count because she only puffs on low-tar cigarettes. Kerry - who smoked while pregnant herself - said the fuss over Stacey's habit, which led to her being stripped of her Mum of the Year title, had probably caused more harm than the cigarettes. And in her column for OK! magazine she claimed: "There's no harm having the odd puff now and then." Kerry claimed doctors advised her that she would be fine smoking "the odd one", because stressing about it would be even more damaging. She said former X Factor star Stacey probably wanted to smoke even more due to the worry. "And she only smokes Silk Cut which aren't even like having a cigarettes because you have to puff so hard," she added. Kerry, who says she has suffered from bipolar disorder and has had drug problems, said it would be common for women in the past to smoke and drink throughout their pregnancies. "My mum smoked all the way through her pregnancy with me and I turned out in the best of health," she wrote.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.