Kerry Katona's daughter Molly McFadden joins the anti-nepo baby brigade: Acting student, 23, who moved to Ireland for a normal life with her grandparents says she'll 'leave reality TV to Mum'

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As the daughter of two famous noughties popstars, a stint on reality TV followed by a clothing line with Boohoo and paid Instagram posts would be an obvious career path for Molly McFadden.

However, the daughter of Westlife star Brian McFadden and Atomic Kitten's Kerry Katona - has been living a decidely normal life out of the spotlight that she was born into.

The 23-year-old lives in Dublin where she is an acting student at the prestigious Lir Academy at Trinity College Dublin, the alma mater of Normal People stars Paul Mescal and Éanna Hardwicke.

She graduated in 2022 with a Diploma in Acting and Theatre Studies and it's believed she's progressed to the three-year, full-time, intensive honours degree, which she will complete in 2025. 

Far from being a nepo baby, Molly's showbusiness connections didn't play a role in her acceptance because all students are required to audition for their place on the intensive course, which is described as being much more rigorous than other drama schools.

Appearing on Loose Women with Kerry in 2020, the youngster made a telling comment about how seriously she takes her career when she shot down rumours that she was set to appear on Love Island, insisting: 'I'll leave the reality TV to my mum.'

The budding actress instead has turned her hand to Shakespeare, appearing in student productsions such as Much Ado About Nothing, in which she played Leonora, a female version of Leonato.

It comes after Take That star Gary Barlow revealed all three of his children are opting for a more studious path, explaining that his son Daniel, 24, and daughter Emily, 22, have decided to pursue careers in medicine and physiology respectively. 

Molly has been based in her father's native Ireland for quite some time after moving when she was 15-years-old to move in with her grandparents and prioritise her education. 

She left the UK in 2017 when she was 15 to live with Brian's parents in Artane, north Dublin and finished her secondary education there after making a firm decision to prioritise her studies. 

'She did her GCSEs here in England, she didn't get what she wanted so we spoke to her nan because Brian doesn't live in Ireland,' Kerry recalled in an interview with 2FM.

'People think that Molly lives with Brian, she lives with her nan and grandad who absolutely adore her and have worked wonders for her.

'She moved over there and she did three years of education and then she moved to London which she absolutely hated.

"Then she moved back home and I said, "Why don't you move back to Ireland, you were flourishing over there".

"She was desperate to get into The Lir and she finally got in the Lir.'

Molly has certainly not taken the easy route when it comes to pursuing a career in acting. 

The degree course at the The Lir Academy is described as being 'completely different' to other drama schools where students might have classes for 14 hours a week. 

Lir Academy students are in classes, workshops and rehearsals for at least 35 hours per week, and sometimes more when in production, and the environment is designed to simulate what you'd expect in a professional theatre. 

Prior to her move, Molly lived in Cheshire with her mother Kerry and younger sister Lilly Sue, 21. Kerry also has Heidi, 17, and Max, 16, from her marriage to Mark Croft.

She shares her youngest daughter, Dylan-Jorge, 10, with her late ex-husband George Kay who died aged 39 in 2019 following an overdose.  

Brian was based in Australia for much of Molly's younger years while he was in a relationship with singer Delta Goodrem. 

He eventually moved back to the UK in 2013 with his now ex-wife Vogue Williams, saying at the time he was 'missing all the growing up' of his daughters'.

Molly has been living a regular student life in Dublin with snaps from her social media showing her enjoying nights out and trips to Europe with her friends.

Kerry travelled to Dublin in October to watch Molly perform in a play at the Lir Academy and gushed how proud she was of her. 

Molly's younger sister Heidi also took to social media to congratulate the aspiring actor for taking the next step in her career and getting her head shots taken. 

The family looked pleased to be reunited and Kerry captioned the post: 'My baby girl did so amazing last night! One proud mummy! love you so much baby girl.'

Kerry celebrated Molly's career by re-posting one of her head shots to her Story.

It was a heartwarming moment for Kerry as only a few months before she told how she hadn't seen Molly in person for a year.

Writing in her OK! column in October, she said:'I haven't seen Molly in almost a year! We talk on the phone every single day, but she just hasn't been home to visit in a while.

'Lilly is getting on great too, she's really settled and has got a good job over in Ireland, I'm proud of her. It's nice for me to see my kids flourish. I've done my parenting bit and now it's their turn to live lives.'

The star has also spoken candidly about experiencing mum guilt because she doesn't see her eldest daughter as much as she'd like to.

Kerry confessed in August she had to cancel her recent trip to Ireland and was left feeling terrible.

The trip ended up clashing with a court case Kerry was involved in and then she was heading away on holiday so she was forced to cancel the trip. 

She wrote: 'I was feeling really guilty last week because I was meant to visit Molly in Ireland for a few days, but I had a court case and then was heading away on holiday so I couldn't make the trip.

'I am really missing her and it makes me feel like a bad mum when I have to reschedule, I was in tears over it and felt heartbroken. I felt like I'd let my baby girl down.'

Kerry added: 'It's hard because Molly and Lilly are grown women now and living away from home, so I'm trying to balance seeing them with work and the other three kids.'