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Dublin Live

Entertainment

Amy Donohoe

Westlife comeback: From bankruptcy to massive Aviva Stadium gig

Westlife Brian McFadden Mark Feehily Kian Egan Shane Filan Vogue Williams Aviva Stadium Kerry Katona Nicky Byrne Cecelia Ahern

It's nearly time for us to "Bop Bop" to the Aviva Stadium this weekend as Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Nicky Byrne and Kian Egan take to the stage.

Westlife is by far the best Irish boyband going and there’s absolutely no denying it - they’ve been Flying Without Wings since they were formed in Sligo back in 1998 by Louis Walsh, a whole 24 years ago.

The four-piece (we won’t mention the day Brian McFadden broke our hearts) have been producing hit after hit for decades and there still as relevant as ever.

The lads are bringing their latest tour to the land of Ireland tonight, Friday, July 8 and Saturday, July 9. They will then head down to Cork for two more gigs as part of their tour which also sees them playing London's Wembley Arena.

But who are the men behind the ballads? Lets take a sneak peak into the private lives of the Westlife singers.

Mark Feehily

Also known as Robobunny, Mark took time out of his busy schedule at the beginning of the year to compete in the Masked Singer as a little rabbit with a big voice.

As well as that, Mark has been calling on the Government to speed up the legislation for families with children who were born through surrogacy.

The singer and his partner Cailean O'Neill welcomed their daughter Layla into their lives back in October 2019 and she is the reason why Mark competed in the ITV singing competition.

Things to do in Dublin this weekend: Westlife BBQ and rooftop drinks as heatwave hits the capital

He previously told Amy Huberman: “At the moment in Ireland the legislation is designed around the sort of more traditional heterosexual a man and a woman have a baby, and at the moment families who have children through surrogacy are having to squeeze themselves into the rules and the laws that have been made up for a completely different situation.

“Like put it this way, I would love in the future not to have to go to the other side of the world to do what we’ve done.

"And number two, when we come back in here (to Ireland) I’d love the state to recognise… it’s basically Layla’s equal rights that’s what I’m interested in.

"And kids that are born through surrogacy at the moment when they come back to Ireland are having to sort of be fitted into the laws that were made up for a different set of people and I really think it’s important that Ireland, quite quickly seeing as the amount of people that are having children through surrogacy whether they be same-sex parents or not, the children are here, they’re born and they deserve to be recognised.”

Nicky Byrne

Bertie Ahern’s son-in-law used to be a semi-professional footballer before his time in Westlife. The dark horse of the boy band went on to have a successful career as a TV and radio presenter when the lads took a break.

He presented with Jenny Greene on RTE 2FM for years and he still finds the time to host Dancing With the Stars with Jennifer Zamparelli.

We can’t forget when he made it to the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2016, an achievement for Ireland. Nicky also inspired his world famous sister-in-law and novelist, Cecelia Ahern’s most recent book.

‘Freckles’ follows the tale of Allegra Bird, nicknamed Freckles, after a stranger tells her “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”.

Cecelia said it was Nicky, who is married to her sister Georgina, who brought it to her attention first. She told RTE Radio 1 : “My lovely brother-in-law, Nicky Byrne said it to me.

“Somebody said something in a room, and he didn’t know whether it was me or my mom because we are morphing into each other, and he said ‘was that you or your mom, you know you are the average of the five people you spent the most time with, choose wisely.’

“And the choice wisely to me seemed kind of threatening so immediately I started thinking of somebody, a character hearing this and not taking it the best way.”

Shane Filan

Westlife's frontman released three solo albums - You and Me, Right Here, and Love Always in the time the band took a break from 2012 to 2018. Shane married his wife, Gillian Walsh who is a cousin of Kian Egan back in 2003.

They have had three children together, one daughter and two sons. Nicole Rose, born 2005, Patrick Michael, born 2008, and Shane Peter, born 2010.

Shane has had his fair share of ups and downs. Just days before Westlife’s final gig back in 2012, he was declared bankrupt. It happened when a property venture he had entered into with his brother crumbled during the recession, but it’s been onwards and upwards for Shane ever since.

Kian Egan

Kian was crowned King of the Jungle by Ant and Dec on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here back in 2013 and he’s had nothing but success ever since.

The Sligo lad was a coach on the Voice of Ireland for years and he was even declared number five on Ireland's Sexiest Man of 2014, what an achievement.

Kian and his wife Jodi Albert recently shared their heartbreak after suffering a miscarriage. The couple revealed the devastating loss back in March of this year.

Sharing a photo of herself and Kian on holiday, Jodi wrote: "I posted a similar pic to this on Valentine’s Day.. one person commented and said she looks pregnant.. on any other occasion I might have been offended… but on this occasion I thought.. ooh she guessed it right, I am and I cannot wait to get to 12 weeks to share our happy news!!

"But sadly we lost our little one at 9weeks pregnant… this is my second miscarriage although 3 1/2 years apart… this one hit differently because we allowed ourselves to get excited and dream about what the future would look like with a new beautiful little blessing to add to our family."

She ended her heartbreaking post by saying: "To my husband who has just been my rock .. you are the most amazing man... I love you and our boys so much and am so grateful for what I already have."

The couple have three children, Koa, Zeke and Cobi.

Brian McFadden

Also known as the lad who shook the nation and created a Reeling in the Years moment back in 2004.

Announcing his departure from Westlife, Brian explained he wanted to spend more time with Atomic Kitten star Kerry Katona and their two daughters Molly and Lily, however his marriage to Kerry ended just months later.

And he later admitted his decision to walk away from Westlife came after the band was told to cover Barry Manilow's hit Mandy.

He told the Irish Independent: "That was definitely a turning point. I've always been very proud of Westlife, and I still think that we never got the respect we deserved, but I was f**king ashamed of that song. From the second we went into the studio to record it, I lost all interest."

In 2018, Brian claimed he had been offered a mega-bucks deal to reunite as a five-piece but said the other four had snubbed him. "I was offered a big multi-million-pound deal. It was the other boys in Westlife who said 'no'. They didn't want me back," he told the Irish Sun.

"How does that make me feel? It makes me pretty upset because I didn't realise they still had those feelings towards me."

Brian's career wasn't the only part of his life to hit the headlines. After his divorce from Kerry, he went on to have two high-profile relationships. He split with Delta Goodrem in 2011, and went on to marry Vogue Williams. However Vogue and Brian announced their divorce in 2015.

Formerly ‘Bryan', joined forces with ex-Boyzone star and Coronation Street actor Keith Duffy to form duo Boyzlife and they’ve been on the road performing boyband hits for years.

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