Piers Morgan's Life Stories (2009) s08e04 Episode Script
Ronan Keating
1 Ronan Keating is this sweet young guy from Ireland, who became one of the biggest boy-band stars in the world.
The thought of sitting there with Piers under the microscope, it's quite intimidating.
Right now, I think he's decided to finally come clean about all the stuff we've read about in the headlines.
What he's gonna ask me? Joining Boyzone, leaving Boyzone, Louis Walsh.
The tragically early death of his mother.
Then of course the death of his band mate Stephen Gately.
An affair which came out in the newspapers.
There's things tonight that I'll say that have never been heard before.
I mean Ronan Keating doesn't do this kind of interview.
This is probably the most nervous I've ever been going into an interview.
If I was him, I'd be nervous.
Are these chairs supposed to be this uncomfortable? How are you feeling? Now I feel great.
Now I feel confident.
I feel like I'm moving forward.
But over the last few years, it hasn't obviously felt that good.
We'll come to what was going on in your life a little later, but in a survey in 2003, you were listed as the musical artist people most liked to listen to while making love.
OK! OK.
I like that one.
Do you actually like the idea of people having sex to your music? Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Have you ever done? Never.
Never.
Yes, you have! No, I have NOT! I can imagine! I don't Even when you were dating, and the lights go down, the candles come out? Never! Mortified.
Are you crazy? No way! 'Let me play you my new single.
' No, not going to happen.
The thoughts of the other lads singing in the background No way! No.
When Boyzone were at the height of their fame, the fan club had 28,000 members, and you personally got the most fan mail - 2,000 fan letters a week.
Wow! What was the weirdest thing fans ever sent you? I remember, which was a bit weird and sick, was pubic hair.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Oh! Seriously? Yeah, seriously.
Sellotapted into cards.
Yeah, not cool.
Did you ever reply to those? No.
Ronan?! OK! Some of your fans were so fanatical, they found out where you lived.
Your mother didn't help matters because she used to invite them in! 'Come in.
See his bedroom.
' She felt sorry for them.
It was cold outside.
It was Dublin.
It was always raining.
She'd bring them inside, show them my bedroom, taking photos.
I remember seeing, it was a fanzine magazine, there was a photograph of my bedroom in the fanzine, and I was going, 'How the hell did they get a photo of my bedroom?' I remember going home and saying, 'Mam, I can't believe that.
' And she goes, 'Oh, yeah.
I might have let them into your room to take a photo.
' Did you ban her from doing that? Yeah, I said, 'Oh, please, Mam, don't.
' She wouldn't listen! Ronan, let's take a look at how you became one of the biggest singing stars of the last 20 years.
Na-na-na-na-na! Na-na-na-na-na! Ronan Keating, the Irish clean-cut superstar, who captured the hearts of millions of fans.
Girls love him.
Their mums love him.
Probably their gran loves him.
He has that charisma.
He has the charm.
He loves to sing.
He loves music.
He's a solo artist It's only words and the lead singer of one of Ireland's biggest musical exports.
Boyzone paved the way for everybody who's come after them in pop music from Ireland.
They were Ireland's first big pop band.
There's no doubt about that.
They were massive.
Ronan got his break 19 years ago, when he was discovered by a well-known pop supremo.
This is the famous Louis Walsh that you hear so much about.
He was putting together Ireland's biggest boy band.
These lads have decided they are going to be Ireland's answer to Take That.
Within 24 hours of being signed up, Ronan and his fellow band mates were asked to perform on Ireland's prime-time entertainment programme The Late Late Show.
I'm sure that if there was one bit of footage that they could buy and destroy, it would be that.
The whole country pissed their pants laughing.
An hour before we went on, the host said he wants us to do something.
We didn't even know each other.
You couldn't believe these guys in dungarees with their tops off were dancing.
They weren't even singing.
It was literally like Louis had gone, 'Guys, dance like maniacs.
We need to get you noticed.
' That footage is just pure gold.
Thank you very much.
Well done.
Who would have guessed that they could become such a phenomenon? We look forward to hearing from you when you're famous.
Love me for a reason Let the reason be love A year later, they got their first Irish No.
1.
Don't love me for fun, girl We love Boyzone! We love Boyzone! And along with it, an adoring female fan base.
The reaction they got was incredible.
This was instant, virtually over night.
Up to 300 screaming girls maintained their vigil at the RTE Television Centre for over three hours.
It reminded me of years ago when The Beatles would do live gigs, and the vans would get rocked.
There was that level of hysteria, especially for Ronan and especially for Steve.
Ronan, Keith, Stephen, Mikey and Shane became the best of friends, but it was the group's two lead singers Ronan and Stephen who had the closest bond.
Ro and Steve were close.
I know in their relationship they would have shared a lot of intimate things.
They were always giggling and laughing.
There was a special bond between them.
The smile on your face Lets me know that you need me After more than five years as Boyzone's front man, Ronan received a call from director Richard Curtis.
He asked him to sing the theme tune on his latest film.
He released a cover of a huge American country song.
I remember hearing that song and thinking, 'Oh, my God, he's done a song for Notting Hill.
' It just all made sense.
It just all fell into place.
When you say nothing at all From that point on, he was no longer Ronan Keating from Boyzone.
He was just Ronan.
Life is a rollercoaster Just got to ride it Ronan's next single cemented his status as a solo star.
This had No.
1 stamped all over it.
It absolutely proved that he was going to be able to have a succession of big hits.
But that video will still go down as one of the stupidest videos ever.
Just him floating around those trees.
It's like, 'Seriously, Ronan, you're 27! You shouldn't be floating around in trees at 27.
' Whilst Ronan's career took off, Boyzone split.
The fact that he suddenly had this massive solo hit did cause a bit of tension amongst them all.
Then it kind of transpired that Ronan had broken up Boyzone, but that really wasn't the case.
If everyone was being honest, everyone wanted a break.
Everyone had just had enough of it all, just the madness of it all.
In 2007, news came that all the fans had been waiting for.
Boyzone are back.
I remember them all hitting the gym at the same time to tour again.
I know they were all excited about that.
They'd all got super buffed-up.
I was kind of a bit jealous.
Two singles later, they were still going strong, but while the band were taking a break from recording an album, Ronan received an unexpected phone call.
We were in a restaurant and the next thing, I just saw him on the phone, and he went, 'What?! What? What?' He pushed his chair back and he looked at me, and I knew something was seriously wrong.
Boyzone fly out to Majorca after the sudden death of Stephen Gately.
At the age of just 33, Stephen had been found dead at his holiday home in Spain.
It hit Ro real hard, real hard.
A week later, on 17th October 2009, Ronan and the rest of his band mates said an emotional farewell to their dear friend.
It's with a heavy heart and great sadness that I say that the world has lost one of its brightest stars.
We've lost our brother and I've lost my wingman.
It'll never be the same without him.
Turning back to when you got the call, who called you? A lawyer called Gerald Kean.
The phone rang and Gerald said, 'Ronan, I'm sorry, but I have some bad news.
Stephen's passed away.
' So straightaway, I started going through all the different Stephens in my head, thinking, 'Stephen who?' And I think I said, 'Stephen who?' And he said, 'Stephen Gately.
' The first thing I did was call Andrew, Stephen's husband, and asked him - was it true? 'Please tell me it's not true.
' And Andrew started crying and said, 'Sorry, Ro, it is.
' Then I called the guys.
And you broke the news to all of them? Yeah.
One by one, and gave them the news.
And that was That was really hard.
Really hard.
Why was it so important for you guys to get to Spain? We didn't understand what was going on, but we knew we needed to be near Steo.
So we got on a flight and we flew down and we met with Andrew and we spent the night talking, really, and trying to understand what was going on and what happened.
That must have been so hard.
It was ALL so hard.
I mean, honestly, you see, getting to Spain Meeting Andrew.
Flying back to Dublin, meeting the parents, and then being asked to organise the funeral and put it together for our friend our brother was hard.
It was Everything we had to do from the songs that we thought he would like to hear to finding the words in the eulogy that would be fitting enough.
And you know, there was times I remember sitting on the plane with the guys and we were I was jotting down things for the eulogy and I was shouting things across the plane at the lads.
And we had some stories we were laughing.
And then somebody'd say something, and you'd just have tears streaming down your face, all of us sitting there.
Erm You spent the night before the funeral in the church with Stephen's coffin, all of you.
Yeah.
It was amazing.
It was an amazing experience for us.
Stephen's mam said she didn't want Stephen on his own in the church.
So we all said, 'No brainer.
We're all staying in the church tonight.
' So we got a bunch of sleeping bags and we literally lay on the floor next to Steo.
And we laughed and cried all night.
And It was It was our It was our last night together.
So He had so much to give.
So full of life and so full of love.
And all the things I knew he wanted to do in life.
You know, something as simple as He was a big Disney fan and he wanted to see - The Princess And The Pea, I think it was called.
He was telling me all about this new cartoon that was coming out and he couldn't wait to see it.
And I remember sitting watching it with my daughters thinking It was hard.
What kind of man was he - Stephen? He was a creature that needed love.
He needed to feel loved.
He went through some difficult times in his life.
When he came out, that was a huge step.
And his bravery was unbelievable.
You guys had known from the start that he was gay.
Yes.
You'd always known.
He'd never kept it a secret to you.
Not with us, no.
But all of you, as the band exploded, you must have all been aware of this ticking time bomb on Stephen.
We never felt it was a ticking time bomb.
Stephen was scared.
Did he feel that? Yeah, he was worried that we would lose fans because of that.
And it was the total opposite when he came out.
But he did I mean, there was friends of his that didn't know.
Telling his mum and dad, all of those things that he had to do because of this issue, the situation that the newspapers had found out, they were going to break the story.
So they came to him and said, 'Would you like to tell it your way?' Did you feel, looking back on it, it may have precipitated a happier phase in his life? You should never be pressurised into doing something like that.
You do it at your own time, your own choice.
It was heartbreaking for Steo.
I saw what happened.
I saw the pain he went through.
And nobody deserves that.
You have to be ruthless in that moment.
I was.
I don't regret going on to do what I did, but I regret the way it was handled.
Let's go right back to the very start of your life.
You were born Ronan Patrick John Keating in Dublin on 3rd March 1977.
What was your childhood like? Madhouse, five kids.
Always something going on, someone arguing with someone.
It was amazing.
I was the baby, so I was spoilt.
You weren't the most academic of children.
Not the most academic! Maybe cos you weren't often at school! I loved sports, I loved English.
I just didn't like all the other stuff.
I was always more interested in listening to my brothers' and sister's record collections at home or going and doing a job somewhere and getting a few bob, you know? I liked to work.
You were hungry and ambitious.
Mm-hm.
For fame and fortune.
Ronan was born in Dublin on March 3rd 1977, the youngest of Marie and Gerry's Keating five children.
We were a very close family.
It was a tough time in Ireland.
Mum and Dad made sure we had everything we needed.
Mum was the boss in the family.
If Mum said you were in trouble, you were in trouble.
All she had to do was shoot you a look.
By the time he was 14, Ronan's older siblings had all flown the nest, and his mother lavished all her attention on her youngest boy.
She spoiled him rotten.
She pampered him like hell, you know, because he was the baby.
We're gonna be so good Like I knew we would By the mid-'90s, Ronan was already a superstar and Boyzone were on their way to becoming a global success.
Gonna be so good It's only words And words are all I have The girls'd hang around outside the house and Mum would bring them in for a cup of tea.
Ronan would be going mad because she'd be bringing them up to show them his bedroom.
Marie Keating proudly watched her son's rise to stardom and in 1995 appeared with the other Boyzone mums on Ireland's 12 To 1 Show.
Ronan's out there and he's a pop star.
He's also the baby of your family.
That's right.
So are you very protective of him? Yes, I do.
I worry about him.
Do you? A lot, yeah.
Just nine months later, she discovered she had cancer.
Mum rings and she says to me, 'Linda, I've found a lump.
I have to go to the hospital.
' It turned out the signs had been spotted earlier, but overlooked.
Mum had a lump for two years, was afraid to go to the doctor.
Kept on saying, 'Oh, it's a cyst.
It'll go away.
' After receiving treatment, it looked like the cancer had disappeared.
They gave her the all-clear.
We pretty much thought that was it.
She's gonna be fine.
I didn't believe it because Mam had a pain in her back.
Four months later, a scan showed the cancer had spread.
The doctor said, 'I don't even have to do a biopsy.
I can tell it's a malignant tumour.
' The cancer was actually in her spine at that stage.
On February 2nd 1998, aged just 51, Marie lost her battle with cancer.
When you lose somebody that close and so important in your life, I mean, life just doesn't carry on normally.
Something has to happen.
Something's got to give.
It was just so hard to see their mother gone, you know? Very hard.
Shocked and grief-stricken, Ronan turned to the bottle.
He drank a lot.
He actually was up on stage and sort of collapsed backstage.
Ronan just went into a downward spiral and had a bit of a breakdown, I think, after that.
I don't know exactly what he went through, other than it wasn't OK.
Tell me about your mother.
Incredibly understanding, loving, caring woman that I could turn to in whatever situation.
That's what your ma is, you know? She was so warm, so caring.
The early days of Boyzone, all the lads used to meet at my house.
They'd all park their cars there, and we'd get in the bus and drive up to Belfast to do a gig, she'd make them all sausage sandwiches and stuff like that.
That's the Irish ma.
'Have you eaten? Have you eaten?' It was like in Father Ted - she's always making sandwiches for the lads.
It was that kind of thing.
'Go on, go on, will you? Go on.
' So it's that kind of thing.
When were you first aware that she had been unwell? I was on the way to the airport, to Dublin Airport, and Kieran my eldest brother called to say, 'Ro Mam They've been to the doctor.
Mam's found a lump and it's not good.
' So that's when it began, and it was a two-year journey.
And that moment that you were told that I didn't want to believe it.
So I got on the plane and I went to work.
Cos I didn't want to believe that.
I was really scared I was going to lose my ma.
You all got together for Christmas, the last Christmas that you had together.
She was very poorly.
Yeah.
That must have been tough for you, for the whole family.
Yeah.
It was a very tough Christmas.
She was in a wheelchair.
And that alone was too much for her.
She hated that.
And we tried, we were all there, and we all tried to just rally around her and make her feel like we didn't think anything other than we were all together and it was Christmas and it's going to be fantastic.
But we knew then she didn't have long.
So it was heartbreaking.
She died two months later.
You were 20 years old.
She was 51.
Yeah.
I was in Dublin when it happened and I remember I got the call from the hospital to say she'd taken a bad turn.
'Can you get to the hospital quickly?' So I jumped in the car and I drove to the hospital and I remember Linda was at the hospital, but I remember pulling into the car park at the hospital, and Linda's car was left abandoned in the car park with the door open and the engine running.
And I thought, 'This isn't good.
' I parked the car and I ran inside.
And as I was getting to the door of Mum's room the nurse came out and told me that she had just passed away.
Mam had asked Linda minutes before, 'Would you go to the Marks and Spencer and pick up some slippers for me?' She had slippers, but she knew And Mam was the type that if all her kids weren't with her then none of them should be.
Yeah.
What did you miss most? I think her voice, her A mother has an amazing ability that when you fuck up to tell you everything's OK.
And she had that.
And you never find that again.
Complete unconditional love? Yeah.
Yeah.
Your dad struggled with it too, so much so that he sold the family home, which was tough for all of you, I think.
Yeah.
You didn't understand it then.
Do you understand it better now? I do.
I understand a lot more than I did then.
His struggle.
What he had to go through.
What he was dealing with.
It was said that you didn't speak to him for two years.
Probably the guts of two years, yeah.
And who made the first move after that? I did.
I did.
I realised when I had kids myself that it's not my choice.
My kids need to decide whether they want a grandfather in their life.
It was selfish of me to do that.
So I thought it was very important that I rebuild that.
What's your relationship like now? Fantastic.
Fantastic.
In 2009, you had a cancer scare of your own.
Yeah.
Tell me about that.
Being the face of a cancer charity, I have to practise what I preach.
So I check myself regularly and I found a lump on one of my testicles.
That thing about - as a guy - having to lie up on a table and get checked, it's not nice.
1) I was frightened because I was afraid of what he was going to tell me and 2) you're there with your pants down and some guy checking your nuts.
It's not cool.
And he said, 'Yes, you are nuts.
' No, that's terrible, sorry! That's really bad.
But actually humour is a good thing.
Yes.
The less you make it sound something horrible, and the more you can have a laugh, the better.
Well, I did actually ask him, 'Can you find them?' when he was checking! But it was frightening.
I was frightened.
I was scared.
And OK, he went and got an ultrasound - all fine.
Thank God.
But I was scared stiff.
Why, when you look back, why do you think you were unfaithful? In 1999, you had a phone call from the director Richard Curtis.
Can you remember that call? I remember it clearly.
Four Weddings and a Funeral was a huge success.
Everyone knew who Richard Curtis was.
He called me to be the voice on the song for this new movie, with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts.
Wow.
After the success of that, the label came to me and said, 'We want to make a record,' a solo record.
Life is a Rollercoaster.
There you go.
It became an even bigger hit, and then you're a solo star.
Yeah.
You have to be.
A solo artist, yeah.
Artist.
I'm sorry.
I'm not a star, that's all I'm saying.
Just a solo artist, yeah.
When that happens, it's a hard moment, isn't it? Because you are letting go people that you have lived, breathed, slept, sung, danced with, for years.
There was no problem at first, no issues.
We were all happy to do it.
When did the problems start? I said I was going to record another solo record after that solo album.
They were like, 'What? I thought we were doing something together, after that solo record.
' I had momentum.
The record company wanted me to record.
That's how the industry is when you're hot they want another straight away, that's it.
So that's what I did, and that's when it happened.
You have to be ruthless at that moment.
Yeah.
And selfish? I was.
I regret certain things that happened then.
I don't regret going on to do what I did, but I do regret the way it was handled.
I wanted my cake and eat it, at that time.
And I guess I was scared that if I didn't do it, I wouldn't have this chance again.
Let's talk about Louis Walsh for a moment.
He was obviously a massively important figure in your life, and yet - I'll say this from the start he didn't want to do an interview for this show.
So clearly you're not best buddies.
Well Describe the relationship from the start for me.
Ah We got on very well from the get-go.
Louis knew that I was professional, I was dedicated, I would work hard.
And he used that to his advantage.
He was a great manager.
Yeah, he was great.
The job he did with you guys was incredible.
It wasn't just the music - he was out there peddling stories, getting headlines, making stuff up, whatever it took.
All designed for two things 1, to make you guys really successful, and 2, on the back of it, so would he be.
And I wouldn't be where I am today without Louis.
We fell out because he he wasn't the manager I needed.
Well, you fell out because you fired him.
I, I I spoke to him, and said, 'Louis, I need somebody to manage me.
' There's only so long that you can go paying somebody all that money and them not doing a job.
Otherwise you feel like a fool.
So as a human being, as a man, as a father, I said, 'I'm not going to let somebody do that to me any more.
' So I made a decision.
He took it very badly.
He did.
He gave an interview in 2005 to the Sun, and said, 'I don't see Ronan.
I don't miss him.
' Later he said on television that you had ambition over talent.
Yeah.
A pretty hurtful comment.
I don't believe he means that.
Well, I know he doesn't.
That's just anger.
When did you last speak to him? I saw Louis on a flight from Dublin the other day.
We had a great laugh.
He said, 'Call me when you're in Dublin, we'll have dinner.
' You know, Louie's like that.
Will you do that? I would love to see him for dinner.
You know what? When Boyzone got back together in 2007, we said, 'We're not doing this without Louis.
' All of us.
We brought him back.
And he didn't manage us then, either! Let's turn to girls.
You made a fatal error, if I may say so.
In 1994 you told the press you'd stay a virgin until you got married.
Even as those words were spilling out of your mouth, you knew this was going to be an unholy lie.
A stupid, stupid, stupid and one more stupid comment to make.
How many seconds after you said it did you lose your virginity? Oh! No, actually I hung on for quite a while, I did well.
So when did you finally, you know What? You never actually said.
I waited till I got married.
No you didn't.
Do you remember how old you were? Yeah.
Where were you? I'm not telling you! We're amongst friends, Ronan.
Yeah.
- I'm sure they'd all like to know.
- Yes! Why A nosy question, obviously.
Were you any good? No.
The first time I was terrible.
I was TERRIBLE.
And it was horrible.
Does the lady, without naming her, does she know she was the one? No.
Would she be shocked? Yeah.
Do you still know her? No.
I wouldn't know what she looks like.
How sad is that? How bad is that, right? Ha ha ha! Was she, was she Irish? No.
But I was - No.
Where were you? I wasn't going to answer this! How do we get to 'Where were you'? You went from 'I'm not talking about it,' to not talking about anything else.
I'm just riding my luck.
You've done well there.
I'm impressed.
How did you get that out of me? Was she English? Yeah.
That's it.
That's all you're getting.
I've said everything.
In the late '90s, you'd found fame and you'd also found love.
I had a picture of you in my mind By the summer of 1997, Boyzone were firmly established as one of music's most popular boy bands.
Everybody was talking about Boyzone.
Everyone wanted to meet them, see them, everyone wanted a piece of them.
I put my name and address on They were the kind of boys ever woman loved, whatever her age.
Just gorgeous! Despite all the female attention, Ronan remained single until a chance meeting with top Irish model Yvonne Connolly.
I remember the first time they showed an interest in each other, I was there with other members of Boyzone.
He had a big eye for that girl, and she had an eye for him too.
By the time Ronan reached his 21st birthday, while dealing with the loss of his mother, news broke of his relationship with Yvonne.
Ronan found Yvonne, Yvonne found Ronran.
She helped him through the toughest time of his life.
She was his rock.
He says he makes her a little softer, she makes him a little softer.
In April 1998, the perfect couple tied the knot, leading to the birth of their three children and more than a decade of happy marriage.
To the outside world, Ronan and Yvonne's marriage was the strongest in showbiz.
They were happy, they were great together.
It was lovely to see young romance blossoming before everybody's eyes.
But in May 2010, everything was to change when news broke of Ronan's affair with backing dancer Francine Cornell.
This really did stun the showbiz world.
No one ever really thought Ronan's marriage would end.
They'd had a long relationship, until For two years, they tried hard to get their marriage back on track.
He was still having to balance work, you know, to support his family, in what he does, and still trying to work out problems in his marriage, so yeah, a very tough time for them both.
But in April this year, the couple announced their separation.
It's been a difficult year-and-a-half for them.
It's sad that they decided to take separate paths.
It's hard to see your sibling go through anything like that.
You just want to give them a hug, and tell them everything'll be all right, but that's not the way Why, when you look back, do you think you were unfaithful? Boyzone had got back together again.
We were on the road, we were on tour And when you're in that circle, it's a bubble.
You're in a bubble.
It's not real.
It's not reality.
I tripped up.
I made a mistake.
If you had your time again, you wouldn't do what you did, right? No, I wouldn't do it.
The pain that I caused people has been devastating.
What did you say to your kids at the time? I was honest.
They're your kids.
You have to be.
With something like this, they were going to find out, maybe in five or ten years' time.
Not an easy thing to do.
As a parent, you're never wrong in your children's eyes.
So you feel like a failure.
You were then seen with Yvonne, after a few months, clearly trying to make things work again.
Yeah.
Were you optimistic? Did you think, 'We can get through this'? Well, she allowed me back.
It was a huge step.
Why do you think it didn't work? I don't think it can ever work after something like that.
The trust is gone? Gone.
In November last year, you issued an apology to Yvonne on the sleeve of your album.
It said, 'You are the most incredible woman I've ever met.
' 'For the mistakes I've made in my life, I'm sorry.
' 'I guess you have to go there to come back.
It was a dark place, and you were the light to bring me back.
I love you.
' Yeah.
She still is an incredible woman.
Do you still love her? Of course I love her.
Yeah.
We both love each other.
We're going to be in each other's lives for the rest of our lives, because of our three incredible kids.
Do you think you would have done this, if it hadn't been for these huge blows in your life, losing your mother, losing Stephen? Do you think it's partly why? I can't use that as an excuse.
I can't.
My psychiatrist gave me a few different reasons for why I possibly did what I did.
But again, they're excuses.
What was the best excuse you heard? That I had spent so long trying to be the perfect husband trying to do everything right that one day I woke up, and decided I didn't want to.
I was wrong in what I did.
I made a choice.
And because of that choice there were devastating effects on people's lives.
Did you notice people's reaction to you changing afterwards? Yeah.
When you wake up and it's all LOVE RAT headlines? Yeah, every day.
How did you find that? What can you do? It's what you are, so you have to somehow pick yourself up.
I just want to be a good man.
I just want people to trust me again, people to know that I will never do this thing again, that I won't.
You know, I just want to be the best I can be.
That's That's as honest as I can be.
It's a long way down when you're far from the ground You're a judge on Australian X Factor.
Yeah.
Are you a ruthless, horrible piece of work? No! I'm pretty honest.
When people are terrible, I tell 'em, when they're great, I tell 'em.
You just want the deluded people to realise they're rubbish.
You know? 'Don't do this - this is not for you.
' You know, it's I like it, I really enjoy the show.
If Simon Cowell said, 'Right, Ronan, I want you on X Factor in the UK,' would you be faster than a greyhound? Unbelievably.
It's unbelievably sad.
Things haven't been easy for you in recent years, but they're definitely looking up.
The last year's been full of upheaval for Ronan as he's adjusted to life as a single parent.
His kids love him.
They adore their daddy.
He's a great dad.
He's had to deal with the pressure of dividing his time between the UK and his job as a judge on Australian X Factor.
Professionally, 2013 marks 20 years of Boyzone.
Loving each day as if it's the last Dancing all night Having a blast, baby Ronan's longevity has been pretty incredible.
To have lasted 20 years, proves how talented he is.
He has been probably the most successful solo artist to ever come out of Ireland.
His success has allowed him to duet with some of the biggest names in show business.
Now that it's done If tomorrow never comes Ronan's also focused on matters close to his heart.
One thing you could never fault Ronan on is his charity work.
Ronan has raised well over £4 million through a range of activities.
He said up the Marie Keating Foundation in memory of his mum, to raise awareness about cancer.
I lost my mum 12 years ago to breast cancer.
We were angry.
We were upset.
We had a lot of questions that were unanswered.
And we were confused.
He does it out of the love he had for his mother.
We wouldn't have the charity if we didn't have Ronan.
Far away, so far away This year, Ronan hopes to set the pop world alight with new music.
Despite all his singing success, there's always been another burning ambition up Ronan's sleeve.
Ronan is an extraordinarily gifted actor.
The fellow's been acting all his life.
That's what music is.
Where is the chart to guide us by Ronan's dream came true after he was cast in the lead role of the Australian feature film Goddess.
I actually flew to Vietnam, where he was doing a gig, to screen-test him.
Remember the deal.
You look after the kids till they start school, then it's my turn.
I almost forgot.
So we can see each other while I'm away.
It's a webcam.
I actually had to take myself to the toilet to stop myself going 'YOU'RE IT!' you know.
'HAVE THE PART NOW!' The future for Ronan is even more annoying than the past, and the present, because instead of getting old and fat, he's now in movies.
Whether he just continues to make records or movies, I'm sure he's going to fly.
I hate you, Ronan.
I hate you so much.
Right now, God damn, life's a rollercoaster for Ronan Keating.
It certainly has been, hasn't it? Indeed it has.
If I had the power to relive a good moment for you, outside of marriage and children and all that kind of stuff, which one would you choose? I'd put the five of us back onstage together.
You know, when we stood onstage together, there was just magic between us.
And as kids, it was the dream and we were living it.
It was amazing.
It was incredible.
I miss it.
I miss Theo.
Yeah.
You've done a lot of good things, as we heard on that VT.
You raised £4 million for charity in your mother's memory.
What have you learned about yourself? I've learnt that if you don't admit to your faults, you carry them with you and they eat you up inside and they make you - they make you worse.
And the one thing that I've learnt to do is to stand up and admit the mistakes that I made, admit to my faults, and try and better myself and be the best I can be.
That's all I can do.
Boyzone, without Stephen, sadly, are going on tour next year, celebrating 20 years since that first catastrophic TV appearance.
I would have given you about an hour, as a band.
It's been an amazing ride for you.
You've also got the acting Yeah.
And the television, and everything else.
What ambitions do you have left? I love what I do.
And yes, people out there may say this or that about me, journalists, whatever - I don't care.
I'm here, I'm doing it and I love it.
Ronan, you've just released a new album, and you're going to sing one of the songs just for us.
Very exciting.
Looking forward to it.
Lovely to see you.
Thank you very much.
That time when we were crossing the Atlantic The moment now we reached the middle You turned to me and said something romantic 'I've won the race and you're the medal' So sure we were contenders So strong and willing to fight But it's a long way down when you're far from the ground I've been falling most of my life And though the sun shines on even after you're gone I feel sorry for the wasted light Spill out of the port into a crowded mainstream Looking for somewhere to settle Soon enough we're lost inside the mystery We'll be strangers before night's shadow With so much to say we've said too little Back then we were pretenders So young and ready to fight Oh, but it's a long way down when you're far from the ground I've been falling most of my life And though the sun shines on even after you're gone I feel sorry for the wasted light Oh, it's a long way down when you're far from the ground I've been falling most of my life And though the clock ticks on even after you're gone I'm just shaking hands with wasted time I'm still praying you come home one night Oh, it's a long way down When you're far from the ground And though the sun shines on even after you're gone I feel sorry for the wasted light I'm still praying you come home one night So here I am crossing the Atlantic Maybe see you at the middle
The thought of sitting there with Piers under the microscope, it's quite intimidating.
Right now, I think he's decided to finally come clean about all the stuff we've read about in the headlines.
What he's gonna ask me? Joining Boyzone, leaving Boyzone, Louis Walsh.
The tragically early death of his mother.
Then of course the death of his band mate Stephen Gately.
An affair which came out in the newspapers.
There's things tonight that I'll say that have never been heard before.
I mean Ronan Keating doesn't do this kind of interview.
This is probably the most nervous I've ever been going into an interview.
If I was him, I'd be nervous.
Are these chairs supposed to be this uncomfortable? How are you feeling? Now I feel great.
Now I feel confident.
I feel like I'm moving forward.
But over the last few years, it hasn't obviously felt that good.
We'll come to what was going on in your life a little later, but in a survey in 2003, you were listed as the musical artist people most liked to listen to while making love.
OK! OK.
I like that one.
Do you actually like the idea of people having sex to your music? Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Have you ever done? Never.
Never.
Yes, you have! No, I have NOT! I can imagine! I don't Even when you were dating, and the lights go down, the candles come out? Never! Mortified.
Are you crazy? No way! 'Let me play you my new single.
' No, not going to happen.
The thoughts of the other lads singing in the background No way! No.
When Boyzone were at the height of their fame, the fan club had 28,000 members, and you personally got the most fan mail - 2,000 fan letters a week.
Wow! What was the weirdest thing fans ever sent you? I remember, which was a bit weird and sick, was pubic hair.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Oh! Seriously? Yeah, seriously.
Sellotapted into cards.
Yeah, not cool.
Did you ever reply to those? No.
Ronan?! OK! Some of your fans were so fanatical, they found out where you lived.
Your mother didn't help matters because she used to invite them in! 'Come in.
See his bedroom.
' She felt sorry for them.
It was cold outside.
It was Dublin.
It was always raining.
She'd bring them inside, show them my bedroom, taking photos.
I remember seeing, it was a fanzine magazine, there was a photograph of my bedroom in the fanzine, and I was going, 'How the hell did they get a photo of my bedroom?' I remember going home and saying, 'Mam, I can't believe that.
' And she goes, 'Oh, yeah.
I might have let them into your room to take a photo.
' Did you ban her from doing that? Yeah, I said, 'Oh, please, Mam, don't.
' She wouldn't listen! Ronan, let's take a look at how you became one of the biggest singing stars of the last 20 years.
Na-na-na-na-na! Na-na-na-na-na! Ronan Keating, the Irish clean-cut superstar, who captured the hearts of millions of fans.
Girls love him.
Their mums love him.
Probably their gran loves him.
He has that charisma.
He has the charm.
He loves to sing.
He loves music.
He's a solo artist It's only words and the lead singer of one of Ireland's biggest musical exports.
Boyzone paved the way for everybody who's come after them in pop music from Ireland.
They were Ireland's first big pop band.
There's no doubt about that.
They were massive.
Ronan got his break 19 years ago, when he was discovered by a well-known pop supremo.
This is the famous Louis Walsh that you hear so much about.
He was putting together Ireland's biggest boy band.
These lads have decided they are going to be Ireland's answer to Take That.
Within 24 hours of being signed up, Ronan and his fellow band mates were asked to perform on Ireland's prime-time entertainment programme The Late Late Show.
I'm sure that if there was one bit of footage that they could buy and destroy, it would be that.
The whole country pissed their pants laughing.
An hour before we went on, the host said he wants us to do something.
We didn't even know each other.
You couldn't believe these guys in dungarees with their tops off were dancing.
They weren't even singing.
It was literally like Louis had gone, 'Guys, dance like maniacs.
We need to get you noticed.
' That footage is just pure gold.
Thank you very much.
Well done.
Who would have guessed that they could become such a phenomenon? We look forward to hearing from you when you're famous.
Love me for a reason Let the reason be love A year later, they got their first Irish No.
1.
Don't love me for fun, girl We love Boyzone! We love Boyzone! And along with it, an adoring female fan base.
The reaction they got was incredible.
This was instant, virtually over night.
Up to 300 screaming girls maintained their vigil at the RTE Television Centre for over three hours.
It reminded me of years ago when The Beatles would do live gigs, and the vans would get rocked.
There was that level of hysteria, especially for Ronan and especially for Steve.
Ronan, Keith, Stephen, Mikey and Shane became the best of friends, but it was the group's two lead singers Ronan and Stephen who had the closest bond.
Ro and Steve were close.
I know in their relationship they would have shared a lot of intimate things.
They were always giggling and laughing.
There was a special bond between them.
The smile on your face Lets me know that you need me After more than five years as Boyzone's front man, Ronan received a call from director Richard Curtis.
He asked him to sing the theme tune on his latest film.
He released a cover of a huge American country song.
I remember hearing that song and thinking, 'Oh, my God, he's done a song for Notting Hill.
' It just all made sense.
It just all fell into place.
When you say nothing at all From that point on, he was no longer Ronan Keating from Boyzone.
He was just Ronan.
Life is a rollercoaster Just got to ride it Ronan's next single cemented his status as a solo star.
This had No.
1 stamped all over it.
It absolutely proved that he was going to be able to have a succession of big hits.
But that video will still go down as one of the stupidest videos ever.
Just him floating around those trees.
It's like, 'Seriously, Ronan, you're 27! You shouldn't be floating around in trees at 27.
' Whilst Ronan's career took off, Boyzone split.
The fact that he suddenly had this massive solo hit did cause a bit of tension amongst them all.
Then it kind of transpired that Ronan had broken up Boyzone, but that really wasn't the case.
If everyone was being honest, everyone wanted a break.
Everyone had just had enough of it all, just the madness of it all.
In 2007, news came that all the fans had been waiting for.
Boyzone are back.
I remember them all hitting the gym at the same time to tour again.
I know they were all excited about that.
They'd all got super buffed-up.
I was kind of a bit jealous.
Two singles later, they were still going strong, but while the band were taking a break from recording an album, Ronan received an unexpected phone call.
We were in a restaurant and the next thing, I just saw him on the phone, and he went, 'What?! What? What?' He pushed his chair back and he looked at me, and I knew something was seriously wrong.
Boyzone fly out to Majorca after the sudden death of Stephen Gately.
At the age of just 33, Stephen had been found dead at his holiday home in Spain.
It hit Ro real hard, real hard.
A week later, on 17th October 2009, Ronan and the rest of his band mates said an emotional farewell to their dear friend.
It's with a heavy heart and great sadness that I say that the world has lost one of its brightest stars.
We've lost our brother and I've lost my wingman.
It'll never be the same without him.
Turning back to when you got the call, who called you? A lawyer called Gerald Kean.
The phone rang and Gerald said, 'Ronan, I'm sorry, but I have some bad news.
Stephen's passed away.
' So straightaway, I started going through all the different Stephens in my head, thinking, 'Stephen who?' And I think I said, 'Stephen who?' And he said, 'Stephen Gately.
' The first thing I did was call Andrew, Stephen's husband, and asked him - was it true? 'Please tell me it's not true.
' And Andrew started crying and said, 'Sorry, Ro, it is.
' Then I called the guys.
And you broke the news to all of them? Yeah.
One by one, and gave them the news.
And that was That was really hard.
Really hard.
Why was it so important for you guys to get to Spain? We didn't understand what was going on, but we knew we needed to be near Steo.
So we got on a flight and we flew down and we met with Andrew and we spent the night talking, really, and trying to understand what was going on and what happened.
That must have been so hard.
It was ALL so hard.
I mean, honestly, you see, getting to Spain Meeting Andrew.
Flying back to Dublin, meeting the parents, and then being asked to organise the funeral and put it together for our friend our brother was hard.
It was Everything we had to do from the songs that we thought he would like to hear to finding the words in the eulogy that would be fitting enough.
And you know, there was times I remember sitting on the plane with the guys and we were I was jotting down things for the eulogy and I was shouting things across the plane at the lads.
And we had some stories we were laughing.
And then somebody'd say something, and you'd just have tears streaming down your face, all of us sitting there.
Erm You spent the night before the funeral in the church with Stephen's coffin, all of you.
Yeah.
It was amazing.
It was an amazing experience for us.
Stephen's mam said she didn't want Stephen on his own in the church.
So we all said, 'No brainer.
We're all staying in the church tonight.
' So we got a bunch of sleeping bags and we literally lay on the floor next to Steo.
And we laughed and cried all night.
And It was It was our It was our last night together.
So He had so much to give.
So full of life and so full of love.
And all the things I knew he wanted to do in life.
You know, something as simple as He was a big Disney fan and he wanted to see - The Princess And The Pea, I think it was called.
He was telling me all about this new cartoon that was coming out and he couldn't wait to see it.
And I remember sitting watching it with my daughters thinking It was hard.
What kind of man was he - Stephen? He was a creature that needed love.
He needed to feel loved.
He went through some difficult times in his life.
When he came out, that was a huge step.
And his bravery was unbelievable.
You guys had known from the start that he was gay.
Yes.
You'd always known.
He'd never kept it a secret to you.
Not with us, no.
But all of you, as the band exploded, you must have all been aware of this ticking time bomb on Stephen.
We never felt it was a ticking time bomb.
Stephen was scared.
Did he feel that? Yeah, he was worried that we would lose fans because of that.
And it was the total opposite when he came out.
But he did I mean, there was friends of his that didn't know.
Telling his mum and dad, all of those things that he had to do because of this issue, the situation that the newspapers had found out, they were going to break the story.
So they came to him and said, 'Would you like to tell it your way?' Did you feel, looking back on it, it may have precipitated a happier phase in his life? You should never be pressurised into doing something like that.
You do it at your own time, your own choice.
It was heartbreaking for Steo.
I saw what happened.
I saw the pain he went through.
And nobody deserves that.
You have to be ruthless in that moment.
I was.
I don't regret going on to do what I did, but I regret the way it was handled.
Let's go right back to the very start of your life.
You were born Ronan Patrick John Keating in Dublin on 3rd March 1977.
What was your childhood like? Madhouse, five kids.
Always something going on, someone arguing with someone.
It was amazing.
I was the baby, so I was spoilt.
You weren't the most academic of children.
Not the most academic! Maybe cos you weren't often at school! I loved sports, I loved English.
I just didn't like all the other stuff.
I was always more interested in listening to my brothers' and sister's record collections at home or going and doing a job somewhere and getting a few bob, you know? I liked to work.
You were hungry and ambitious.
Mm-hm.
For fame and fortune.
Ronan was born in Dublin on March 3rd 1977, the youngest of Marie and Gerry's Keating five children.
We were a very close family.
It was a tough time in Ireland.
Mum and Dad made sure we had everything we needed.
Mum was the boss in the family.
If Mum said you were in trouble, you were in trouble.
All she had to do was shoot you a look.
By the time he was 14, Ronan's older siblings had all flown the nest, and his mother lavished all her attention on her youngest boy.
She spoiled him rotten.
She pampered him like hell, you know, because he was the baby.
We're gonna be so good Like I knew we would By the mid-'90s, Ronan was already a superstar and Boyzone were on their way to becoming a global success.
Gonna be so good It's only words And words are all I have The girls'd hang around outside the house and Mum would bring them in for a cup of tea.
Ronan would be going mad because she'd be bringing them up to show them his bedroom.
Marie Keating proudly watched her son's rise to stardom and in 1995 appeared with the other Boyzone mums on Ireland's 12 To 1 Show.
Ronan's out there and he's a pop star.
He's also the baby of your family.
That's right.
So are you very protective of him? Yes, I do.
I worry about him.
Do you? A lot, yeah.
Just nine months later, she discovered she had cancer.
Mum rings and she says to me, 'Linda, I've found a lump.
I have to go to the hospital.
' It turned out the signs had been spotted earlier, but overlooked.
Mum had a lump for two years, was afraid to go to the doctor.
Kept on saying, 'Oh, it's a cyst.
It'll go away.
' After receiving treatment, it looked like the cancer had disappeared.
They gave her the all-clear.
We pretty much thought that was it.
She's gonna be fine.
I didn't believe it because Mam had a pain in her back.
Four months later, a scan showed the cancer had spread.
The doctor said, 'I don't even have to do a biopsy.
I can tell it's a malignant tumour.
' The cancer was actually in her spine at that stage.
On February 2nd 1998, aged just 51, Marie lost her battle with cancer.
When you lose somebody that close and so important in your life, I mean, life just doesn't carry on normally.
Something has to happen.
Something's got to give.
It was just so hard to see their mother gone, you know? Very hard.
Shocked and grief-stricken, Ronan turned to the bottle.
He drank a lot.
He actually was up on stage and sort of collapsed backstage.
Ronan just went into a downward spiral and had a bit of a breakdown, I think, after that.
I don't know exactly what he went through, other than it wasn't OK.
Tell me about your mother.
Incredibly understanding, loving, caring woman that I could turn to in whatever situation.
That's what your ma is, you know? She was so warm, so caring.
The early days of Boyzone, all the lads used to meet at my house.
They'd all park their cars there, and we'd get in the bus and drive up to Belfast to do a gig, she'd make them all sausage sandwiches and stuff like that.
That's the Irish ma.
'Have you eaten? Have you eaten?' It was like in Father Ted - she's always making sandwiches for the lads.
It was that kind of thing.
'Go on, go on, will you? Go on.
' So it's that kind of thing.
When were you first aware that she had been unwell? I was on the way to the airport, to Dublin Airport, and Kieran my eldest brother called to say, 'Ro Mam They've been to the doctor.
Mam's found a lump and it's not good.
' So that's when it began, and it was a two-year journey.
And that moment that you were told that I didn't want to believe it.
So I got on the plane and I went to work.
Cos I didn't want to believe that.
I was really scared I was going to lose my ma.
You all got together for Christmas, the last Christmas that you had together.
She was very poorly.
Yeah.
That must have been tough for you, for the whole family.
Yeah.
It was a very tough Christmas.
She was in a wheelchair.
And that alone was too much for her.
She hated that.
And we tried, we were all there, and we all tried to just rally around her and make her feel like we didn't think anything other than we were all together and it was Christmas and it's going to be fantastic.
But we knew then she didn't have long.
So it was heartbreaking.
She died two months later.
You were 20 years old.
She was 51.
Yeah.
I was in Dublin when it happened and I remember I got the call from the hospital to say she'd taken a bad turn.
'Can you get to the hospital quickly?' So I jumped in the car and I drove to the hospital and I remember Linda was at the hospital, but I remember pulling into the car park at the hospital, and Linda's car was left abandoned in the car park with the door open and the engine running.
And I thought, 'This isn't good.
' I parked the car and I ran inside.
And as I was getting to the door of Mum's room the nurse came out and told me that she had just passed away.
Mam had asked Linda minutes before, 'Would you go to the Marks and Spencer and pick up some slippers for me?' She had slippers, but she knew And Mam was the type that if all her kids weren't with her then none of them should be.
Yeah.
What did you miss most? I think her voice, her A mother has an amazing ability that when you fuck up to tell you everything's OK.
And she had that.
And you never find that again.
Complete unconditional love? Yeah.
Yeah.
Your dad struggled with it too, so much so that he sold the family home, which was tough for all of you, I think.
Yeah.
You didn't understand it then.
Do you understand it better now? I do.
I understand a lot more than I did then.
His struggle.
What he had to go through.
What he was dealing with.
It was said that you didn't speak to him for two years.
Probably the guts of two years, yeah.
And who made the first move after that? I did.
I did.
I realised when I had kids myself that it's not my choice.
My kids need to decide whether they want a grandfather in their life.
It was selfish of me to do that.
So I thought it was very important that I rebuild that.
What's your relationship like now? Fantastic.
Fantastic.
In 2009, you had a cancer scare of your own.
Yeah.
Tell me about that.
Being the face of a cancer charity, I have to practise what I preach.
So I check myself regularly and I found a lump on one of my testicles.
That thing about - as a guy - having to lie up on a table and get checked, it's not nice.
1) I was frightened because I was afraid of what he was going to tell me and 2) you're there with your pants down and some guy checking your nuts.
It's not cool.
And he said, 'Yes, you are nuts.
' No, that's terrible, sorry! That's really bad.
But actually humour is a good thing.
Yes.
The less you make it sound something horrible, and the more you can have a laugh, the better.
Well, I did actually ask him, 'Can you find them?' when he was checking! But it was frightening.
I was frightened.
I was scared.
And OK, he went and got an ultrasound - all fine.
Thank God.
But I was scared stiff.
Why, when you look back, why do you think you were unfaithful? In 1999, you had a phone call from the director Richard Curtis.
Can you remember that call? I remember it clearly.
Four Weddings and a Funeral was a huge success.
Everyone knew who Richard Curtis was.
He called me to be the voice on the song for this new movie, with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts.
Wow.
After the success of that, the label came to me and said, 'We want to make a record,' a solo record.
Life is a Rollercoaster.
There you go.
It became an even bigger hit, and then you're a solo star.
Yeah.
You have to be.
A solo artist, yeah.
Artist.
I'm sorry.
I'm not a star, that's all I'm saying.
Just a solo artist, yeah.
When that happens, it's a hard moment, isn't it? Because you are letting go people that you have lived, breathed, slept, sung, danced with, for years.
There was no problem at first, no issues.
We were all happy to do it.
When did the problems start? I said I was going to record another solo record after that solo album.
They were like, 'What? I thought we were doing something together, after that solo record.
' I had momentum.
The record company wanted me to record.
That's how the industry is when you're hot they want another straight away, that's it.
So that's what I did, and that's when it happened.
You have to be ruthless at that moment.
Yeah.
And selfish? I was.
I regret certain things that happened then.
I don't regret going on to do what I did, but I do regret the way it was handled.
I wanted my cake and eat it, at that time.
And I guess I was scared that if I didn't do it, I wouldn't have this chance again.
Let's talk about Louis Walsh for a moment.
He was obviously a massively important figure in your life, and yet - I'll say this from the start he didn't want to do an interview for this show.
So clearly you're not best buddies.
Well Describe the relationship from the start for me.
Ah We got on very well from the get-go.
Louis knew that I was professional, I was dedicated, I would work hard.
And he used that to his advantage.
He was a great manager.
Yeah, he was great.
The job he did with you guys was incredible.
It wasn't just the music - he was out there peddling stories, getting headlines, making stuff up, whatever it took.
All designed for two things 1, to make you guys really successful, and 2, on the back of it, so would he be.
And I wouldn't be where I am today without Louis.
We fell out because he he wasn't the manager I needed.
Well, you fell out because you fired him.
I, I I spoke to him, and said, 'Louis, I need somebody to manage me.
' There's only so long that you can go paying somebody all that money and them not doing a job.
Otherwise you feel like a fool.
So as a human being, as a man, as a father, I said, 'I'm not going to let somebody do that to me any more.
' So I made a decision.
He took it very badly.
He did.
He gave an interview in 2005 to the Sun, and said, 'I don't see Ronan.
I don't miss him.
' Later he said on television that you had ambition over talent.
Yeah.
A pretty hurtful comment.
I don't believe he means that.
Well, I know he doesn't.
That's just anger.
When did you last speak to him? I saw Louis on a flight from Dublin the other day.
We had a great laugh.
He said, 'Call me when you're in Dublin, we'll have dinner.
' You know, Louie's like that.
Will you do that? I would love to see him for dinner.
You know what? When Boyzone got back together in 2007, we said, 'We're not doing this without Louis.
' All of us.
We brought him back.
And he didn't manage us then, either! Let's turn to girls.
You made a fatal error, if I may say so.
In 1994 you told the press you'd stay a virgin until you got married.
Even as those words were spilling out of your mouth, you knew this was going to be an unholy lie.
A stupid, stupid, stupid and one more stupid comment to make.
How many seconds after you said it did you lose your virginity? Oh! No, actually I hung on for quite a while, I did well.
So when did you finally, you know What? You never actually said.
I waited till I got married.
No you didn't.
Do you remember how old you were? Yeah.
Where were you? I'm not telling you! We're amongst friends, Ronan.
Yeah.
- I'm sure they'd all like to know.
- Yes! Why A nosy question, obviously.
Were you any good? No.
The first time I was terrible.
I was TERRIBLE.
And it was horrible.
Does the lady, without naming her, does she know she was the one? No.
Would she be shocked? Yeah.
Do you still know her? No.
I wouldn't know what she looks like.
How sad is that? How bad is that, right? Ha ha ha! Was she, was she Irish? No.
But I was - No.
Where were you? I wasn't going to answer this! How do we get to 'Where were you'? You went from 'I'm not talking about it,' to not talking about anything else.
I'm just riding my luck.
You've done well there.
I'm impressed.
How did you get that out of me? Was she English? Yeah.
That's it.
That's all you're getting.
I've said everything.
In the late '90s, you'd found fame and you'd also found love.
I had a picture of you in my mind By the summer of 1997, Boyzone were firmly established as one of music's most popular boy bands.
Everybody was talking about Boyzone.
Everyone wanted to meet them, see them, everyone wanted a piece of them.
I put my name and address on They were the kind of boys ever woman loved, whatever her age.
Just gorgeous! Despite all the female attention, Ronan remained single until a chance meeting with top Irish model Yvonne Connolly.
I remember the first time they showed an interest in each other, I was there with other members of Boyzone.
He had a big eye for that girl, and she had an eye for him too.
By the time Ronan reached his 21st birthday, while dealing with the loss of his mother, news broke of his relationship with Yvonne.
Ronan found Yvonne, Yvonne found Ronran.
She helped him through the toughest time of his life.
She was his rock.
He says he makes her a little softer, she makes him a little softer.
In April 1998, the perfect couple tied the knot, leading to the birth of their three children and more than a decade of happy marriage.
To the outside world, Ronan and Yvonne's marriage was the strongest in showbiz.
They were happy, they were great together.
It was lovely to see young romance blossoming before everybody's eyes.
But in May 2010, everything was to change when news broke of Ronan's affair with backing dancer Francine Cornell.
This really did stun the showbiz world.
No one ever really thought Ronan's marriage would end.
They'd had a long relationship, until For two years, they tried hard to get their marriage back on track.
He was still having to balance work, you know, to support his family, in what he does, and still trying to work out problems in his marriage, so yeah, a very tough time for them both.
But in April this year, the couple announced their separation.
It's been a difficult year-and-a-half for them.
It's sad that they decided to take separate paths.
It's hard to see your sibling go through anything like that.
You just want to give them a hug, and tell them everything'll be all right, but that's not the way Why, when you look back, do you think you were unfaithful? Boyzone had got back together again.
We were on the road, we were on tour And when you're in that circle, it's a bubble.
You're in a bubble.
It's not real.
It's not reality.
I tripped up.
I made a mistake.
If you had your time again, you wouldn't do what you did, right? No, I wouldn't do it.
The pain that I caused people has been devastating.
What did you say to your kids at the time? I was honest.
They're your kids.
You have to be.
With something like this, they were going to find out, maybe in five or ten years' time.
Not an easy thing to do.
As a parent, you're never wrong in your children's eyes.
So you feel like a failure.
You were then seen with Yvonne, after a few months, clearly trying to make things work again.
Yeah.
Were you optimistic? Did you think, 'We can get through this'? Well, she allowed me back.
It was a huge step.
Why do you think it didn't work? I don't think it can ever work after something like that.
The trust is gone? Gone.
In November last year, you issued an apology to Yvonne on the sleeve of your album.
It said, 'You are the most incredible woman I've ever met.
' 'For the mistakes I've made in my life, I'm sorry.
' 'I guess you have to go there to come back.
It was a dark place, and you were the light to bring me back.
I love you.
' Yeah.
She still is an incredible woman.
Do you still love her? Of course I love her.
Yeah.
We both love each other.
We're going to be in each other's lives for the rest of our lives, because of our three incredible kids.
Do you think you would have done this, if it hadn't been for these huge blows in your life, losing your mother, losing Stephen? Do you think it's partly why? I can't use that as an excuse.
I can't.
My psychiatrist gave me a few different reasons for why I possibly did what I did.
But again, they're excuses.
What was the best excuse you heard? That I had spent so long trying to be the perfect husband trying to do everything right that one day I woke up, and decided I didn't want to.
I was wrong in what I did.
I made a choice.
And because of that choice there were devastating effects on people's lives.
Did you notice people's reaction to you changing afterwards? Yeah.
When you wake up and it's all LOVE RAT headlines? Yeah, every day.
How did you find that? What can you do? It's what you are, so you have to somehow pick yourself up.
I just want to be a good man.
I just want people to trust me again, people to know that I will never do this thing again, that I won't.
You know, I just want to be the best I can be.
That's That's as honest as I can be.
It's a long way down when you're far from the ground You're a judge on Australian X Factor.
Yeah.
Are you a ruthless, horrible piece of work? No! I'm pretty honest.
When people are terrible, I tell 'em, when they're great, I tell 'em.
You just want the deluded people to realise they're rubbish.
You know? 'Don't do this - this is not for you.
' You know, it's I like it, I really enjoy the show.
If Simon Cowell said, 'Right, Ronan, I want you on X Factor in the UK,' would you be faster than a greyhound? Unbelievably.
It's unbelievably sad.
Things haven't been easy for you in recent years, but they're definitely looking up.
The last year's been full of upheaval for Ronan as he's adjusted to life as a single parent.
His kids love him.
They adore their daddy.
He's a great dad.
He's had to deal with the pressure of dividing his time between the UK and his job as a judge on Australian X Factor.
Professionally, 2013 marks 20 years of Boyzone.
Loving each day as if it's the last Dancing all night Having a blast, baby Ronan's longevity has been pretty incredible.
To have lasted 20 years, proves how talented he is.
He has been probably the most successful solo artist to ever come out of Ireland.
His success has allowed him to duet with some of the biggest names in show business.
Now that it's done If tomorrow never comes Ronan's also focused on matters close to his heart.
One thing you could never fault Ronan on is his charity work.
Ronan has raised well over £4 million through a range of activities.
He said up the Marie Keating Foundation in memory of his mum, to raise awareness about cancer.
I lost my mum 12 years ago to breast cancer.
We were angry.
We were upset.
We had a lot of questions that were unanswered.
And we were confused.
He does it out of the love he had for his mother.
We wouldn't have the charity if we didn't have Ronan.
Far away, so far away This year, Ronan hopes to set the pop world alight with new music.
Despite all his singing success, there's always been another burning ambition up Ronan's sleeve.
Ronan is an extraordinarily gifted actor.
The fellow's been acting all his life.
That's what music is.
Where is the chart to guide us by Ronan's dream came true after he was cast in the lead role of the Australian feature film Goddess.
I actually flew to Vietnam, where he was doing a gig, to screen-test him.
Remember the deal.
You look after the kids till they start school, then it's my turn.
I almost forgot.
So we can see each other while I'm away.
It's a webcam.
I actually had to take myself to the toilet to stop myself going 'YOU'RE IT!' you know.
'HAVE THE PART NOW!' The future for Ronan is even more annoying than the past, and the present, because instead of getting old and fat, he's now in movies.
Whether he just continues to make records or movies, I'm sure he's going to fly.
I hate you, Ronan.
I hate you so much.
Right now, God damn, life's a rollercoaster for Ronan Keating.
It certainly has been, hasn't it? Indeed it has.
If I had the power to relive a good moment for you, outside of marriage and children and all that kind of stuff, which one would you choose? I'd put the five of us back onstage together.
You know, when we stood onstage together, there was just magic between us.
And as kids, it was the dream and we were living it.
It was amazing.
It was incredible.
I miss it.
I miss Theo.
Yeah.
You've done a lot of good things, as we heard on that VT.
You raised £4 million for charity in your mother's memory.
What have you learned about yourself? I've learnt that if you don't admit to your faults, you carry them with you and they eat you up inside and they make you - they make you worse.
And the one thing that I've learnt to do is to stand up and admit the mistakes that I made, admit to my faults, and try and better myself and be the best I can be.
That's all I can do.
Boyzone, without Stephen, sadly, are going on tour next year, celebrating 20 years since that first catastrophic TV appearance.
I would have given you about an hour, as a band.
It's been an amazing ride for you.
You've also got the acting Yeah.
And the television, and everything else.
What ambitions do you have left? I love what I do.
And yes, people out there may say this or that about me, journalists, whatever - I don't care.
I'm here, I'm doing it and I love it.
Ronan, you've just released a new album, and you're going to sing one of the songs just for us.
Very exciting.
Looking forward to it.
Lovely to see you.
Thank you very much.
That time when we were crossing the Atlantic The moment now we reached the middle You turned to me and said something romantic 'I've won the race and you're the medal' So sure we were contenders So strong and willing to fight But it's a long way down when you're far from the ground I've been falling most of my life And though the sun shines on even after you're gone I feel sorry for the wasted light Spill out of the port into a crowded mainstream Looking for somewhere to settle Soon enough we're lost inside the mystery We'll be strangers before night's shadow With so much to say we've said too little Back then we were pretenders So young and ready to fight Oh, but it's a long way down when you're far from the ground I've been falling most of my life And though the sun shines on even after you're gone I feel sorry for the wasted light Oh, it's a long way down when you're far from the ground I've been falling most of my life And though the clock ticks on even after you're gone I'm just shaking hands with wasted time I'm still praying you come home one night Oh, it's a long way down When you're far from the ground And though the sun shines on even after you're gone I feel sorry for the wasted light I'm still praying you come home one night So here I am crossing the Atlantic Maybe see you at the middle