PRESS ASSOCIATION -- Kerry Katona has claimed she was a phone-hacking victim - and said it cost her financially as a result, although it also boosted her fame.
Katona told fellow Celebrity Big Brother housemates she felt "violated" by the hacking but the stories made her better known than in her days with chart act Atomic Kitten.
She claimed the News of the World had the numbers of her mother, her ex-husband Brian McFadden - formerly of Westlife - and even her then-drug dealer.
"The News of the World made me more famous than being in Atomic Kitten," she said. "I was a bit of a f***-up anyway, I can hold my hands up for that, but I felt violated.
"They literally destroyed the little bit of my career that I had going. The amount of stuff that they had (on me) was unbelievable."
Katona said before police notified her of the hacking, she was blaming her friends and accusing them of selling stories to the press.
Housemate Darryn Lyons - a picture agency boss - was quick to point out that the exposure made her a "tremendous amount of money".
Katona said the notoriety had made her more famous, but not "money famous".
"I lost a hell of a lot of work through that," she added. Kerry was dropped from a lucrative contract with the Iceland supermarket chain following newspaper stories about her drug use.
The 30-year-old also discussed her controversial 2008 appearance on This Morning, insisting her slurred speech was caused by prescribed medication for bipolar disorder.