Kerry Katona, the former pop star in Atomic Kittten, was taken hostage today by armed robbers, who held a knife to her throat while other gang members ransacked the house.

The 2004 winner of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here was at home with her baby daughter and her husband when a masked gang armed with a sledgehammer, crowbar and large kitchen knife threatened to kill her.

Raiders held Katona, 26, and her five-month-old daughter Heidi in a downstairs room from around midnight last night, while Mark Croft, 36, her husband, was forced to lead the burglars through the house in Cheshire.

Three robbers stole £150,000 worth of valuables including a new BMW sports car, laptop computers, televisions and jewellery, according to Max Clifford, the publicist who represents the singer.

“Kerry is in a terrible state. When I spoke to her this morning she was in floods of tears and absolutely distraught,” Clifford said. “It was a terrifying experience. Luckily they weren’t hurt, but Kerry was held at knifepoint and the robbers threatened to kill them. It was such a horrible thing to happen.”

The family had moved into the £1.5 million house in Wilmslow, Cheshire only a few months ago. Katona’s two daughters from her previous marriage to Brian McFadden, the lead singer of Irish boy band Westlife, were not in the house during the ordeal.

Her marriage to McFadden ended acrimoniously after two years and the OK magazine favourite married Mr Croft, a former taxi driver, on Valentine's Day this year. Their wedding was held in Gretna Green, six days before the birth of Heidi.

The three of them were locked in a room while the robbers made their escape this morning. Mr Croft joined his wife and child once he had been forced to show the burglars around the house. They managed to free themselves and raise the alarm at around 12.30am.

Cheshire police said the family were “extremely alarmed” by the robbery. "They had not been harmed but were left shaken," a spokesman said.

The house is monitored by CCTV cameras but the three men wore balaclavas throughout the raid. Police today appealed for witnesses and information about the robbery, they released details of the stolen car - a blue BMW M5 with the registration number WF06 KMM.

Times Recommends

• Stand-ups laughing all the way to the bank
• How Britain’s wildlife fared during the year
• UK charity bids to save Borneo’s orang-utans