Kerry Katona: Don’t leave me!

Kerry Katona: Don’t leave me!
(That’s a plea to the Nanny not Mark)

Cash strapped Kerry Katona knew just what to do when both her husband Mark AND her nanny threatened to walk out last week.

She made damned sure she kept the Nanny — with a 50 per cent pay rise she can’t afford to look after the four kids she can’t cope with.

A pal revealed: “It made no sense—but when Kerry has problems she just throws money at them and hopes they will vanish And that infuriated Mark so much this time he stormed off for a couple of days.”

The latest drama in 27-year-old Kerry’s crazy world unfolded when her nanny Gemma got so fed up with the star’s chaotic lifestyle she walked out on her last week.

The shocked drama queen—on the verge of bankruptcy—desperately offered $52,000-a-year Gemma an astonishing extra $26,000 on her salary to stay.

“She called her begging her to go back and offered her a pay rise that she couldn’t turn down,” said the pal. “Kerry just finds it a struggle with four kids on her own.”

But it caused such a a blazing row with husband Mark Croft, 38, that he stormed off to a hotel for two nights with their youngest child, Maxwell, four months.

“Mark really was at the end of his tether,” said the pal. “It’s not like him to go and leave her and it shows how serious he was about this. But Kerry persuaded him to come home.”

The friend said Mark has told her she needs to focus on looking after Molly, six, Lilly Sue, five, Heidi, 18 months, and Maxwell instead of relying on helpers.

Kerry’s splashout on the nanny comes just weeks after she was considering taking equity out of her posh $2.6 million home to settle an unpaid VAT bill of $214,000.

Her lawyers pleaded with a bankruptcy court for leniency because Kerry was waiting for a payment of just under $1,000,000 and she was given until the end of next month to find the cash. Meanwhile the pal says she’s determined to get her marriage back on track.

She has asked Gemma and Mark’s brother Stuart to take the kids away for a few days next weekend so she can spend some time with her husband.

Her pal added: “She knows she needs to get her act together and focus on being a good mum and a good wife and she’s terrified of losing him.”