Inside Katy Perry's strict religious upbringing including strange cereal ban (2025)

As Katy Perry embarks on jetting into space, the popstars life has dramatically changed from her ultra-conservative upbringing and strict childhood she grew up in

Katy Perry's music career has led her to become one of the biggest popstars in the world. With her catchy bubblegum pop songs dominating the charts, the US performer has come a long way from starting off with her contemporary Christian record which she released in March 2001, and has led to her today jetting off into space.

Katy, whose real name is Katheryn 'Katy' Hudson, came from a strict Christian family, and her music started off as a nod to her religious roots - but soon turned into a risqué performer, releasing songs like I Kissed a Girl and Hot N Cold. In 2008 the pop sensation left behind her conservative and ultra-strict lifestyle that defined her childhood, and turned into the popstar she is today.

The singer, who is married to US actor Orlando Bloom, has never shied away from speaking about her upbringing and her relationship with her ultra-conservative and Christian preacher parents Keith and Mary Hudson. She told Vanity Fair in 2011: "I come from a very non-accepting family, but I'm very accepting. We coexist. I don't try to change them anymore, and I don't think they try to change me. We agree to disagree."

She then made an appearance in 2017 on the Today Show, where she similarly said: "They don't agree with some of the things I do and they do wish that I could do other things. My parents are great, and I love them so much," and added: "I cry sometimes thinking about how much I love them."

However she revealed to Vanity Fair she didn't "have a childhood" due to her parents' strict religion-led rules. She recalled how her mother never read her any books other than the Bible. She was also prohibited from saying things like "devilled eggs" or "dirt devil," or listening to secular music.

She also had fears of getting "bombed" when she first visited Planned Parenthood, having grown up thinking it was exclusively an "abortion clinic," as opposed to the women's health centre with wide-ranging services that it actually is.

Katy told the Irish Times that her childhood was "just the Jesus train" and said: "It wasn't expansive and it wasn't curious, it was just Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday evening; Jesusjesusjesusjesusjesusjesusjesus. From birth, it was pure Bible thumping." She also revealed she didn't agree with the values she was being taught.

Growing up, Katy and her siblings were not allowed to eat the cereal Lucky Charms as the word "luck" reminded their mother of Lucifer, and were also required to call devilled eggs "angeled eggs". She also frequently attend church youth group sessions, and the views she was surrounded by differed greatly from what she felt inside.

The atmosphere at home was heavy: at Sunday school, the kids played with felt depictions of hell. Men dominated. Katy developed cleanliness-related OCD to exert some control. Education was limited and heavily religious. She left school at 15 to pursue her career, firstly as a gospel singer.

"The atmosphere I grew up in was 100 per cent Christian," she said in her 2012 documentary Part of Me. "I started singing in the church, I never really had another plan."

Katy hasn't ever been secretive about her interest in women, but she has never fully admitted that she’d gone beyond simple experimentation. She claimed her pastor parents and their teachings made her feel ashamed about her desires, so she kept that side of herself hidden.

"I speak my truths and I paint my fantasies into these little bite-size pop songs," she told the audience at the Human Rights Campaign Gala in Los Angeles as she accepted the National Equality Award at the gala in 2023. "For instance, 'I kissed a girl and I liked it.' Truth be told, I did more than that."

In 2013, Perry told Marie Claire that she no longer considers herself a Christian, but still has a “deep connection with God. I'm not Buddhist, I'm not Hindu, I'm not Christian, but I still feel like I have a deep connection with God. I pray all the time - for self-control, for humility. There's a lot of gratitude in it. Just saying ‘thank you’ sometimes is better than asking for things."

Now Katy is in the final stages of preparation before she embarks on a BlueOrigin space flight with an all-female crew and will be part of the first female-only mission in over sixty years, alongside five other women.

The team, which includes Katy, ex-NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights campaigner Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and journalist Lauren Sanchez, managed to squeeze in some last-minute astronaut training in Texas on Sunday, as revealed by photos shared online by BlueOrigin.