\nBy Last updated at 2:28 AM on 27th March 2011\n<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n ‘It’s been hell. I don’t think in any way I’m through it, but I am dealing with it… I make mistakes. I’m definitely not comfortable with the mistakes that I’ve made and I’m still trying to resolve them,’ said Ronan Keating<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ronan Keating has been famous for 19 of his 34 years. Until a year ago, he seemed almost too good to be true: Boyzone pin-up from working-class Dublin, whose solo career was marked by a never-ending series of successes. He managed Westlife at the age of 21 and remains one of the UK\u2019s biggest-selling male solo artists. It was written that he prayed every night, remained devoutly Catholic in the face of the rock \u2019n\u2019 roll and was the perfect father to his three children by his former-model wife, Yvonne. <\/span><\/p>\n Then he fell to earth. The angelic star with the altar-boy image had his wings singed a year ago, after it was revealed he\u2019d had an affair with a dancer. It was front-page news, and his reputation took a beating. Worse, he and his wife separated after 12 years of marriage (they\u2019re now back together). The one benefit of the crisis, it seems, is that people no longer hold him to an unrealistically high standard. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Every interview I ever sat through normally started with someone saying \u201cYou\u2019ve achieved so much for your age\u201d or \u201cYou are such a great role model\u201d,\u2019 he says.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I always hated that, felt embarrassed about it, because I felt I\u2019d been stuck with a label that was pretty impossible. Then life throws you a curve ball and every-thing changes and you\u2019re blamed for not being this person you never were. As if everything in life was black and white, when we all know it\u2019s a sea of greys. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s been hell. I don\u2019t think in any way I\u2019m through it, but I am dealing with it. I set myself up for a fall by appearing holier than holy, and I think there may be quite a few people out there who thought, \u201cThank God \u2013 he\u2019s human after all.\u201d I am. I make mistakes. I\u2019m definitely not comfortable with the mistakes that I\u2019ve made and I\u2019m still trying to resolve them.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n ‘I love my wife (Yvonne) and my family is everything to me’<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The \u2018other woman\u2019 was former 27-year-old Boyzone dancer Francine Cornell. The story broke in May last year when Keating and his wife released a surprise statement announcing their amicable separation. The truth quickly emerged. Cornell had toured with Keating and Boyzone; Keating was portrayed as pop\u2019s biggest hypocrite.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s worth noting that until now Keating has never discussed the affair, and Cornell has kept her silence. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I did make a mistake,\u2019 he says today. \u2018And I\u2019m still trying to make up for that. I love my wife and my family is everything to me. Right now I\u2019m trying to be the man I want to be. I\u2019m trying to get there.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n I ask him if in some way it could be said that the whole episode may actually have been good for his image. He looks momentarily stunned.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Absolutely not. The people I love the most have been hurt \u2013 my family. I take the blame for that. Everyone is responsible for their own actions.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n Keating is something of a conundrum. Part-way through a Boyzone reunion tour \u2013 which has received the best reviews of the band\u2019s career \u2013 he arrives for Live\u2019s photo shoot at Brighton\u2019s Royal Pavilion wearing jeans, a black jacket and an ethnic-print cotton scarf wound several times around his neck, with black diamonds, beads and tiny silver skulls adorning his wrist. It\u2019s more rock star than boy band.<\/span><\/p>\n He cites his former manager Louis Walsh as one of his role models in life, despite the fact that he once fell out with him spectacularly.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I learnt a hell of a lot from Louis,\u2019 says Keating. \u2018He was a huge part of my life. But I actually feel very comfortable about who I am now. I\u2019ve never felt this way before. I’ve got a confidence about myself; I am embarrassed about mistakes that I have made, but I\u2019m not embarrassed about myself any more. I was for a long time, but that\u2019s all gone. I think I\u2019ve finally grown into my skin.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n In truth Keating has never really been anything other than flawed. When his beloved mother Marie died 13 years ago, he dealt with it by \u2018drinking a bottle of Jack Daniel\u2019s a night\u2019, he says.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018It started as a wake and then I just didn\u2019t stop. I\u2019d sit around with my brothers and sisters, talking and drinking, drinking and talking. And you carry on, because that\u2019s the way you deal with it. I hit the bottle pretty bad.\u2019 He pauses.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018It was Yvonne who pulled me out of that.\u2019 He pauses again.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I love Yvonne very much.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n He says he has changed completely, but can\u2019t quite pinpoint the moment this change took place. \u2018At a very young age I was managing a band, and I was coming up against people who were thinking, \u201cHe\u2019s only 21 years old.\u201d People were forever telling me I was too serious. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018It was wonderful having the success, because none of us expected anything when we got together as kids. We worked bloody hard. But I never felt that comfortable about myself \u2013 me or the way I looked.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n But surely being blessed with heart-throb status must have helped. \u2018No, I was a chicken-chested, buck-toothed kid with the worst haircut.\u2019 He laughs. \u2018I work out now; I\u2019ve got older.\u2019 ‘Doing the tour has been tough, but it’s also been incredible. There was never any chance of finding a replacement for him, never in a million’: Ronan on Boyzone after Stephen Gately’s (far left) death 18 months ago<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Keating is about to reinvent himself as an actor, something he\u2019s wanted to do for about a decade. He auditioned for the lead in Moulin Rouge (\u2018Ewan McGregor got that one, and fair play to him \u2013 he was amazing\u2019) and missed out on parts in The Lord of the Rings and King Arthur.<\/span><\/p>\n But this year he\u2019s won two roles: the lead in a romantic comedy, Goddess, which starts filming in Australia next month (he plays a marine biologist), and a role in another film which he can\u2019t yet talk about. <\/span><\/p>\n There is, he says, a connection between how he feels about himself now and his abilities as an actor. \u2018I wasn\u2019t right before. I didn\u2019t have the confidence in myself as an actor. I think the key to acting is knowing who you are as a person, and that\u2019s where I feel I am now. I\u2019ve wanted to act for a long time. I\u2019ve been taking a few lessons and Sir Ian McKellen gave me the best advice: \u201cLook them in the eye and tell them the truth.\u201d\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n He says he\u2019s \u2018bloody terrified\u2019 about going on set for Goddess. \u2018I\u2019ve been very upfront about how I feel. The director (Mark Lamprell) flew to Vietnam, where I was doing a gig, and that\u2019s when I got the part. I\u2019ve spent hours breaking down the part till I know it backwards, but I\u2019m still terrified. I\u2019m not going to pretend I\u2019m not, because that\u2019s exactly as it is.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n Keating has certainly acquired plenty of life experience to draw on as an actor over the past few years. After the death of his mother came the death of his best friend and bandmate Stephen Gately, who died from a freak pulmonary oedema 18 months ago. It was a death that saw the media spotlight turned onto Gately, his boyfriend and a gay friend who had joined them that night. For Keating, who was working on a Boyzone reunion album, it was just horrendous.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018It threw the whole world upside down. We thought about not doing the album, just leaving it. But then we decided to battle on. None of us expected the response. It was No 1 for four weeks. That was for Steo. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Doing the tour has been tough, but it\u2019s also been incredible. There was never any chance of finding a replacement for him, never in a million. To go out on stage with this Steo-shaped hole has been really tough, but the response from the fans has really helped us get through it. They\u2019ve let us know it\u2019s tough for them too, but they\u2019re with us. As a band we\u2019ve definitely come\u00a0 out stronger.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n Ronan cites his former manager Louis Walsh as one of his role models in life<\/p>\n<\/div>\n After Gately\u2019s death it was Keating who took charge of the funeral. Keating is a doer, good in a crisis, a man who knows how to cope. It\u2019s no coincidence that in his spare time he likes to test himself to the extreme. It\u2019s two years since he went up Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief, and next year he\u2019ll be undertaking the first stage of an ascent of Everest.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m planning to get to Base Camp next year,\u2019 he says. \u2018Climbing Everest is a two- to three-year training plan, but I\u2019m in. I have this absolute love of the elements. I\u2019m obsessed with Bear Grylls and anything to do with the outdoors, survival. It focuses the mind.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n He also plans to swim the Irish Sea in September with Richard Branson and his bandmate Shane Lynch. \u2018I\u2019m a terrible swimmer, so I need to get on with some training, but we\u2019ll be doing it in relays. There\u2019s nothing like a challenge.\u2019 A challenge is one thing, but real \u2018It was pretty nerve-racking the moment our guide told us to wait and disappeared on his Ski-Doo,\u2019 recalls Keating. \u2018We \u2018But \u2018The Outdoor \u2018I have 47 Keating If he had to give one piece of advice to anyone hoping to make it in the music business, it would be \u2018Surround yourself with people who tell you the truth\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n Keating has, after all, experienced both sides of the industry \u2013 the good and the bad. Having embarked on a successful solo career following the heady Nineties Boyzone era, he then had a rift with the man who created the band, Louis Walsh.<\/span><\/p>\n They settled their differences a few years ago, and both have made a new career out of The X Factor. It\u2019s been rumoured that Simon Cowell wants Keating on the UK panel after his own departure for the U.S. Keating gives a wry grin. \u2018I\u2019d take that job in a heartbeat, but I don\u2019t think Louis would like it. We\u2019ll see.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n Forever challenging himself, Ronan recently released his eighth studio album, When Ronan Met Burt, a collaboration with music legend Burt Bacharach. Few UK artists have been chosen by Bacharach to perform his songs. \u2018I genuinely think it\u2019s the best thing I\u2019ve done,\u2019 says Keating. \u2018It was also the most terrifying album to make.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018We recorded it in Studio A at Capitol Records in California, and there were all these people buzzing about. I just got too nervous. I bottled the first song we did, then I got myself together, pulled him aside and asked if I could have a word, and we just sat and talked. ‘I was in awe of him completely, although I have to say we\u2019ve had our rows. I was on the phone to him last night arguing over an eighth of a decibel on the sound. That\u2019s what it\u2019s like.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n So what makes Keating happy in the final analysis? Career, challenges or family?<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Family. It\u2019s all about family. When I\u2019m away in Australia I miss Yvonne and the kids so much. We speak every day and she comes out when she can. They are everything to me. Yvonne is everything. Absolutely.\u2019 Ronan\u2019s new album \u2018When Ronan Met Burt\u2019 is out now<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
\nLouise Gannon<\/a><\/p>\n![\"'It's](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/8e77037b786_634x472.jpg.jpg\")
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\nfear is another. Last year on a trip which involved a husky safari in
\nthe Arctic, Keating and a friend of his were left on their own for
\nseveral hours in temperatures of around -28\u00b0C after their guide went
\noff to find shelter.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n
\nwere in the middle of nowhere with our dogs and sledges, the light was
\ngoing, it was beyond freezing, and there\u2019s a thought that you don\u2019t
\nquite let cross your mind: \u201cWhat if he doesn\u2019t find us again?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\nyou can\u2019t think like that. We took the decision to batten down the
\nhatches. The big fears are the light going completely and the cold. We
\ndrove across this frozen lake, nailed the leads down into the ice so
\nthe dogs couldn\u2019t run off, grabbed as much wood and foliage from the
\nside of the lakes as we could possibly carry, then built a massive fire.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nfire served two purposes: it kept us warm and let the guide see us. We
\nwere wearing the proper gear so we were OK, but you can\u2019t mess with
\nthose temperatures. My beard was solid with ice. We focused completely
\non building that fire. Once we\u2019d got it going we had one canister of
\nwhisky and then we saw lights from the\u00a0 Ski-Doo coming and we were out
\nof there.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n
\nadventures are clearly a good antidote to the pressures of the music
\nindustry. He also says he has an obsession with speed, cars and
\nwatches.
<\/span><\/p>\n
\nwatches. When Boyzone first hit it big I was forever in Watches of
\nSwitzerland in London spending obscene amounts of money. Now I just
\nwear one IWC watch. It\u2019s a father-and-son watch. I have the father
\nwatch, which has \u201cPilot Ronan\u201d engraved on the back, and my son has the
\nlittle one with \u201cCo-pilot Jack\u201d engraved on it.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n
\nowns two Porsches \u2013 a 1968 911 and a new\u00a0 911 GT3 \u2013 a Range Rover, a
\nLand Rover Defender for\u00a0 off-roading and a beaten-up Ford Bronco. There
\nare also five Harley-Davidsons split between his homes \u2013 two in
\nAustralia (he\u2019s a judge on the Australian version of The X Factor), one
\nin Portugal and two in Dublin. <\/span><\/p>\n
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<\/span><\/p>\nExplore more:<\/h3>\n
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