Katona: No harm in smoking during pregnancy 'now and then'

Kerry Katona has defended smoking mother-to-be Stacey Solomon by claiming it does not count because she only smokes low-tar cigarettes.

Katona, who smoked while pregnant herself, said the fuss over Solomon’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.”

Katona, who herself won Celebrity Mum of the Year awards twice, 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 Solomon 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.

Katona, 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.

Solomon, a mother of one, whose second baby is due on May 7, previously said criticisms which have been levelled at her were justified, however.

“All of the responses are something that I deserve,” she said. I don’t for one minute think I can sit here and say it is OK.

“It’s something I’m not proud of and I’m really, really struggling with in general. It’s something that I don’t want to do and that I’m not happy doing, so it’s horrible.”

She said she was trying to give up. “It’s a horrible habit and I care more about my children than anything in the whole wide world so anything I can do to give up means more to me than anything else, or what anyone thinks.”

The British Heart Foundation was critical of Katona’s comments and said it was “disappointing” that they emerged today, on the British national No Smoking Day.

Doireann Maddock, senior cardiac nurse at the charity, said smoking “can harm both the mum and the baby”.

She said: “It doesn’t matter what brand of cigarettes you smoke. They all contain nicotine, tar and more than 4,000 chemicals, including rat poison and bleach.”