Kerry Katona was rushed to hospital in an ambulance over fears she was having a stroke after watching her daughter’s play in London
16:15, 13 Apr 2026Updated 20:42, 13 Apr 2026
Kerry was rushed to hospital(Image: kerrykatona7/Instagram)
A fun family day out turned into horror for Kerry Katona when she was rushed to hospital in an ambulance over fears she was having a stroke.
Kerry, who was in London watching her eldest daughter Molly in a new play, started to feel unwell midway through the performance. Afterwards, she realised she couldn’t smile properly, which is a major tell-tale sign of a stroke.
Kerry, who was with her daughter Heidi and partner Paolo Margaglione at the time, tells us, “As the day went on, I didn’t feel well. I went to the toilet and noticed my face wasn’t right. And Heidi was like, ‘Mum, what’s wrong with your face?’ I started panicking. I discreetly left, went to my hotel and asked to see a doctor. I told the staff, ‘Something’s not right.’”
To Kerry’s dismay, a doctor wasn’t available for four hours, so the mum-of-five took a taxi to St Thomas’ Hospital. “I got there, and they said, ‘We’re treating this as a stroke,’ so they blue-lit me in an ambulance from St Thomas’ to King’s College Hospital,” explains Kerry. “They were shining lights in my eyes while my face and speech were getting worse.
Kerry, with Paolo, on holiday
Kerry was treated for a suspected stroke(Image: kerrykatona7/Instagram)
An hour ago I was watching our Molly in a play and now I’m being treated for a stroke. What the actual f**k? It just shows how quickly things can change.” The situation was so dire that Kerry, 45, messaged all of her children – Molly, 24, Lilly, 23, Heidi, 19, Max, 18, and 12-year-old Dylan-Jorge – fearing that she might never get to speak to them again.
“It really, really scared me,” she says. “I texted all my children and told them I loved them. I’ve never been so scared in my life.” At hospital, Kerry was subjected to various tests, including CT scans, before finally being told what was causing the changes in her speech and face.
“It was a suspected stroke, but luckily that was ruled out after my scans. Instead the CT scans showed there’s a part of my brain that’s broken and isn’t able to send signals to my face due to stress,” she says. “I’ve spoken to Anna Williamson from Celebs Go Dating about it since, and apparently it can also happen when you’re feeling content. It’s like delayed stress hitting you suddenly because you feel at peace. Every now and then, I’ll get a shooting pain in my head. And I’m noticing my speech – even though I think I’m saying something properly in my head, it doesn’t sound right out loud.”
While Kerry can’t pinpoint exactly what stress might have caused the condition, she admits that she’s feeling run down. “I don’t know if it’s because I’m run down from balancing family life, but I don’t have a social life. I don’t go out drinking. I don’t socialise with anybody outside of my circle, which is Paolo and my kids,” she says.
Kerry Katona and boyfriend Paolo were watching Kerry’s daughter Molly in a play(Image: Instagram/kerrykatona7)
Knowing what she knows now, Kerry has been looking back at old home videos, in an effort to see if she can identify when things started to change. Watching them, she says she can see her speech changing over time and getting worse.
“The doctors said it will come back. But I want to have speech therapy and get the right exercises for my face,” she says. “I’m getting a bit panicky with it.”
For Kerry, the terrifying incident must have revived memories of her late husband George Kay, who was hospitalised in 2015 while also suffering signs of a stroke. The former rugby player was experiencing facial paralysis and trouble speaking, just like Kerry. At the time, Kerry begged her fans to pray for him. It later transpired that George, who tragically died of a drug overdose in 2019, was suffering from Bell’s Palsy, a condition that causes sudden temporary weakness or paralysis of the muscles on one side of the face.
In a bid to take her mind off her health woes, Kerry headed off to Spain to celebrate Dylan-Jorge’s 12th birthday and get some much-needed sun with Paolo and their blended family. But she admits the holiday hasn’t come at an ideal time.
“I genuinely feel like s**t,” she says. “Because we had to fly out to Marbella, I haven’t had any follow-up checks. But I’ll do it as soon as I get back to try to get my speech and face sorted.”
For now, Kerry’s face is still tight on one side, but she’s hopeful that with exercises and speech therapy, everything can return back to normal. The latest setback follows a string of health-related problems Kerry’s faced over the past year.
In 2025, she suffered two heartbreaking miscarriages after falling pregnant by Paolo. And in January this year, she was hospitalised with severe stomach pain and diagnosed with colitis – a chronic illness that causes inflammation of the rectum and colon. She had to stay off her beloved spicy food in order to get well.
But this latest hurdle could be Kerry’s toughest health battle yet.
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