Cyberattacks on 41% firms
Everyone I worried about just didn’t give a hoot westlife singer Mark on coming out
WESTLIFE’S Mark Feehily admitted yesterday it was “very scary” coming out as gay two decades ago while shooting to fame with the boy band.
The Sligo-born singer also admitted he struggled with “internalised homophobia” and has Kian Egan to thank for encouraging him to seek therapy, which he has credited as “life-changing”.
As Ireland celebrates Pride Week, the 40-year-old recalled the difficulty he faced coming out to his friends and loved ones.
He said: “It was the beginning of a lonely situation. I was surrounded by family and friends but there was this one part of me that was lonely because there was no one I could share it with.
“For me my coming out experience was an anticlimax in one way because I was so worried what everyone would think and I got zero negative reaction. Everyone I was worried about just didn’t give a hoot.
“The main thing I learned was that it was all actually within me.”
Speaking to Jennifer Zamparelli on RTE 2fm, he added: “I went to a counsellor at one point but I couldn’t get to the bottom of it and I couldn’t move forward.
“And she said to me – it was in London – ‘You are homophobic’, and I was so shocked.
“I was like I just told you I was gay five minutes ago, what are you on about? And she went on and explained it to me, internalised homophobia which is in a lot of young gay lads. They are their own worst enemy and until you can deal with that you can’t move forward.
“I was so worried about what everyone else thought, none of them ended up giving a crap. It was all within me. I was the one who had the problem.
“It was a big lightbulb moment and it changed my life. It was the best thing I ever done. Like Kian from the band was one of the main people who helped me in that situation. He could just see that I wasn’t happy. “He was one of the main people that reached out and went, ‘Look, why don’t you have a think about doing this and go and talk to someone’. And through that door was the start of the rest of my life and that was back in 2003/04.”
Mark, who welcomed his first child with his fiance Cailean O’neill last year, spoke of the importance of making your children feel comfortable and accepted in their own skin.
He said: “One of the most important things a parent can do is tell your kids from an early age that you don’t care who they fall in love with, who they fancy, as long as they’re happy.”
Meanwhile, after enjoying his first Father’s Day with daughter Layla, Mark revealed baby number two is a real possibility and added: “I love the idea of her having a little playmate her own size and age. It’s not in the immediate future but it’s on the cards.”
ENGAGED
MORE than four in 10 Irish businesses were the victims of a cyberattack in just six months, it has been revealed.
A report from Hiscox Insurance found 41% of firms had been targeted between September last year and February, with 6.5% paying out after a ransomware attack.
The total cost of cyber incidents and breaches among the 335 companies studied was more than €113million at a median cost of €91,860.
MARK FEEHILY YESTERDAY