The November 2024 announcement that Kerry Katona and her fiancé Ryan Mahoney had ended their relationship sent ripples through the celebrity news world. After six years together, a period that seemed to offer stability in Katona's often turbulent romantic life, the split came as a surprise to many followers.
Katona, the 44-year-old former Atomic Kitten singer and media personality, and Mahoney, a 36-year-old fitness trainer, had appeared to be a solid unit since meeting on the dating app Bumble in 2018.
Their engagement followed in August 2020 or 2021, marking a significant commitment.
However, beneath the surface, issues were brewing, culminating in Mahoney moving out of their shared Cheshire home and Katona confirming the end of their engagement.
While Katona initially expressed shock, stating she "never in a million years thought this would happen"
, subsequent reports and her own admissions revealed a complex picture behind the breakup.
The Official Narrative: Kerry Cites "Breach of Trust"
In the immediate aftermath of the split confirmation, Kerry Katona established a clear, albeit vague, official reason for the relationship's demise. Writing in her regular columns for magazines like OK! and New!, she consistently pointed to a fundamental breakdown in their connection: a "breach of trust".
Her statement, widely reported, was direct yet deliberately ambiguous: "Last week I spoke about how Ryan and I were having a tough time and now he has moved out of the house. We are no longer together and It's been a really tough week - I never in a million years thought this would happen. Without going into too much detail, there has been a breach of trust between us".
This carefully worded explanation served to provide a definitive reason for the public while protecting the specific details of what transpired. By labelling the cause as a "breach of trust," Katona framed the split as resulting from a significant transgression, justifying the separation without needing to air private matters. This controlled narrative allowed her to acknowledge the end of the relationship on her own terms, setting the stage for subsequent discussions about the contributing factors and her emotional response, even as the precise nature of the breach remained undefined. The lack of specifics, however, naturally led to speculation, though insider sources later clarified that infidelity was not the issue.
Timeline of Key Relationship Events
This timeline illustrates that while the final confirmation and the "breach of trust" reason emerged relatively quickly in November 2024, signs of underlying strain had surfaced publicly in the preceding months, suggesting the relationship faced significant challenges before its ultimate end.
Cracks Beneath the Surface: Exploring the Unspoken Reasons
While the "breach of trust" served as the official explanation, a confluence of underlying issues, reported by insiders and alluded to by Katona herself, appears to have eroded the foundation of the relationship over time. These factors paint a picture of growing distance, differing expectations, and mounting external pressures. Notably, sources close to the situation were quick to state that cheating was not the catalyst for the split.
Feeling Unsupported – A Recurring Theme
A consistent narrative emerged from multiple sources suggesting that Katona felt increasingly alone in the relationship, particularly when facing adversity. Insiders claimed that Mahoney hadn't been supportive during key moments in the months leading up to the split. Specific examples cited included him offering "no help" when Katona moved into a new home.
Perhaps more significantly, Mahoney was perceived as being absent during a critical family crisis – Katona's mother, Sue, was rushed to hospital with serious blood clots in her lungs. Sources stated that Mahoney "hasn't been there for her" since her mother's hospitalisation. Katona herself echoed this sentiment when discussing her recovery from surgery earlier in the year, revealing she felt unsupported when Mahoney went to London for a tattoo instead of being with her. She lamented, "That upset me, because it made me feel unsupported and I could have done with the emotional support. I'm always the 'strong mum' in our house and this week I really wanted to be looked after".
Adding to this perception of lack of effort, sources claimed Katona had grown tired of Mahoney being "lazy" and couldn't envision a long-term future with him as a result. This pattern of perceived lack of support and effort during stressful life events likely contributed significantly to the erosion of trust and emotional connection, potentially making any subsequent "breach" feel like a final straw rather than an isolated incident.
Clashing Worlds – Careers, Friends, and Friction
The relationship also appeared strained by fundamental differences in their lifestyles, career choices, and social circles. Reports indicated frequent arguments over Katona's work and personal decisions. Mahoney allegedly felt frustrated that Katona didn't prioritize their relationship enough, while Katona insisted she had done her best.
A specific point of contention was Katona's lucrative career on OnlyFans. Mahoney reportedly disliked her presence on the platform, struggled with the idea of other men fantasizing about or contacting her, and felt uncomfortable with her being the primary breadwinner. This suggests a clash between Katona's comfort with leveraging her celebrity status in potentially controversial ways and Mahoney's apparent desire for a more conventional dynamic.
Furthermore, Katona's renewed closeness with her friend, fellow celebrity Katie Price, reportedly caused significant friction. Sources claimed Mahoney viewed the friendship as "toxic," believing Katona had changed, was trying to relive her past, and was acting more like a teenager since Price had re-entered her life. This disagreement over friendships added another layer of conflict. These various points of friction likely contributed to Katona's earlier admission that she and Mahoney had been arguing "like cat and dog" , indicating ongoing discord stemming from their differing worlds and expectations.
Diverging Paths – The Desire for Children
A deeply personal and fundamental incompatibility centred on the desire for children. Mahoney, in his mid-thirties, reportedly wanted to become a father and have biological children of his own. Katona, already a mother to five children from three previous relationships, had made it clear she did not wish to have more.
This difference in life goals became starkly public in February 2024 when Katona revealed she had given Mahoney a "free pass" to leave the relationship and have a baby with someone else if fatherhood was that important to him. She stated, "I don't want to deprive him... I've given him a pass and said, 'If this is something you want to pursue, leave me now!'". Insider reports described this issue as an "elephant in the room". While Katona reportedly felt "gutted" she couldn't fulfill this desire for Mahoney, she maintained it was beyond her control and refused to feel guilty about it. Such a fundamental divergence on a major life decision like having children inevitably places immense strain on a relationship and likely contributed significantly to the underlying tensions long before the final split.
External Pressures and Personal Struggles
The relationship was also tested by significant external pressures and Katona's personal challenges. Her mother Sue's declining health and eventual hospitalisation were major sources of stress. Concurrently, Katona was dealing with her own emotional struggles, acknowledging she was seeking therapy to work through issues, including trauma related to her late ex-husband George Kay.
Katona explicitly linked these difficult times to the strain on her relationship with Mahoney, stating, "I do feel like it's been such an emotional time recently and none of that has helped my relationship with Ryan either". She also admitted to suffering from lack of sleep and poor eating habits during this period, feeling overwhelmed. When combined with the reports of feeling unsupported by Mahoney during these very struggles, it suggests a relationship buckling under the weight of both internal incompatibilities and significant external life events.
The Emotional Rollercoaster: Kerry's Journey Post-Split
Kerry Katona's public processing of the breakup unfolded as a dramatic emotional arc, moving from deep initial pain to eventual acceptance and empowerment.
Immediately following the split in November 2024, Katona expressed profound shock and heartbreak. She described the experience in visceral terms, comparing the loss of the relationship to "a death". She mourned not just the romantic partner but also the loss of her "best friend" and the shared life they had built. In interviews and her columns, she admitted to being "still very much in love" with Mahoney at the time and confessed she was "really struggling" to cope with the separation and adjust to his absence.
However, as 2025 began, a noticeable shift occurred in Katona's narrative. She embarked on solo trips, including one to Thailand described as a "healing journey about spirituality and finding yourself". This period of reflection seemed to bring clarity and a change in perspective. She began to state that the initial heartache was fading and came to believe that "splitting up with Ryan was the best thing to happen to me". She declared she was "over that chapter" and realised he "wasn't the one" for her. This newfound perspective was accompanied by a strong focus on self-love, with Katona proclaiming she was now "in the best relationship of my life, which is with myself".
This internal transformation was mirrored externally. Katona underwent a significant physical change, losing a reported two stone and slimming down to a size 6. This was framed, partly by sources close to her, as achieving a "revenge body" , linking her physical confidence to overcoming the breakup as she prepared to re-enter the dating scene via the reality show Celebs Go Dating. While embracing this new chapter with excitement, she also acknowledged lingering vulnerability and nervousness about dating after a long-term relationship. This publicly documented journey allowed Katona to control the post-split narrative, presenting herself as resilient and ultimately thriving despite the initial pain.
Life After Ryan: Navigating Singledom and Shared Business
Moving forward from the split involved both emotional and practical adjustments for Kerry Katona. Embracing her single status, she made clear her intention to date again. She joined the exclusive celebrity dating app Raya and signed up for a second stint on the E4 reality show Celebs Go Dating. While expressing excitement about meeting someone new, she also admitted to feeling "exposed" and "a bit scared" about putting herself back out there after the "agony" of the breakup. A brief rumoured fling with a chef surfaced but was quickly downplayed by sources close to Katona.
Beyond the personal realm, the separation presented practical complications. Katona and Mahoney were business partners, co-directors of Kerry Katona Ltd. Untangling their professional ties required formal intervention, with Katona confirming they were "sorting out the work side of things through a mediator". This necessity underscores that the split involved complex legal and financial negotiations extending beyond the emotional separation.
Throughout this period, Ryan Mahoney's perspective remained conspicuously absent from the public discourse. Multiple reports noted that he "remained silent throughout" the breakup and its aftermath. His silence means the narrative presented in the media has been shaped almost entirely by Katona's statements, her magazine columns, and information from sources presumably aligned with her. Without Mahoney's account of the "breach of trust" or his perspective on the relationship's breakdown, the story remains inherently one-sided.
The split also had an impact on Katona's family. Sources reported that her children were "really devastated" by Mahoney moving out, as he had been a significant presence and father figure in their lives for six years, particularly for her youngest daughter, DJ. This added another layer of difficulty to an already painful situation for Katona.
The end of Kerry Katona and Ryan Mahoney's six-year relationship and subsequent engagement appears to be the result of a complex interplay of factors, rather than a single, isolated incident. While Katona's official reason centred on an unspecified "breach of trust" , numerous reports suggest this occurred against a backdrop of accumulated issues.
These underlying problems reportedly included Katona feeling unsupported during challenging times, particularly concerning her mother's health crisis ; friction over career choices like OnlyFans and differing comfort levels with public life ; disagreements stemming from Katona's friendships ; fundamental incompatibility regarding the desire to have more children ; and the strain of external pressures combined with Katona's personal struggles. It is plausible that the "breach of trust" was either the culmination of these ongoing issues or a separate event made unforgivable by the pre-existing cracks in the relationship.
Throughout the process, Kerry Katona actively managed the public narrative via her media columns, interviews, and social media presence. She documented her emotional trajectory from initial devastation and grief to eventual empowerment, self-love, and the conviction that the split was ultimately beneficial for her personal growth. This contrasts sharply with Ryan Mahoney's complete public silence , which leaves his side of the story untold and means the available information is heavily weighted towards Katona's perspective.
Ultimately, the breakup of Kerry Katona and Ryan Mahoney serves as a reminder that celebrity relationships, often scrutinised under the public lens, frequently involve a complex mix of publicly stated reasons and deeper, private struggles. The full, nuanced picture often remains partially obscured, particularly when only one party chooses to share their version of events.
