Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
LOCKDOWN SAVED MY MARRIAGE...
(BUT RUINED HIS!) Duffy and Brian Boy band stars Keith as Boyzlife, on how Mcfadden, now known has affected them both the coronavirus crisis
Singer Brian Mcfadden had splashed out for his 40th birthday. He and some friends booked tickets to the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia, this April. What better way for a golf nut to celebrate the milestone? ‘I was supposed to see in my 40th watching Tiger Woods and Rory Mcilroy,’ says one of our most famous boy band members. ‘Instead I spent it at home, Skyping everyone I know.’
His friend (and one-time boy band rival) Keith Duffy, 45, knows the feeling. He’s been at home too, mostly with a chainsaw. A what?! ‘I’ve been trimming trees. I have a lovely home. We bought it 16 years ago, and planted 4,500 trees, but since then I’ve been so busy I’ve never paid them any attention. I didn’t realise they’d grown up!’
What a revelation – trees, like boy band members, do grow up. For most of their careers, these two occupied opposing camps in the pop world. Brian had been in Westlife, Keith in Boyzone. But four years ago they linked up for a concert tour, calling themselves Boyzlife.
Their fans loved this merger, and now they’ve recorded an album, Strings Attached – a collection of nine re-recorded No 1 hits from their original bands but rendered very grown-up indeed by the addition of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
They would have been touring at the moment but for the coronavirus, and neither is used to being at home as they’ve spent their adult lives on the road. Keith explains that while most of his work has been Uk-based, his family chose to live in his native Ireland. ‘My daughter Mia is autistic and was going to a brilliant education facility here so we stayed in Ireland. It meant I’ve hardly been home, though, and that’s put a strain on everyone. I’d only get back every few weeks, and now the kids are older with their own lives [his son, Jay, is 24, Mia 20] I hardly saw them.’ He’s spent lockdown with his family, though. ‘I know some people have been having an awful time, but for me this has been a godsend. I’ve been having dinner with my family, playing board games. This is not a life I had before.’
Brian, holed up in Manchester with his fiancée, agrees. ‘I’ve been having home-cooked food. No hotel room service. It’s actually a treat.’
Listening to them marvel about what it’s like to live out of a suitcase makes you realise how insane life is for our pop stars. Keith explains how family life is tricky when you’re always away. He says his marriage to fashion stylist Lisa has had ‘a few wobbles’ as his family are used to functioning without him. ‘Coming home, I was worried how it was going to work. Lisa and the kids have their routine. So when I do have time at home, it’s trying to fit into something you’re not part of.’
He admits his marriage was in a dangerous period pre-lockdown. ‘Your worry is, “Do we have anything in common any more?”’ But his relief is palpable. ‘Thank God, we’ve never got on better. These past weeks will probably give us the foundation to go on for the rest of our lives.’
Keith’s been married to Lisa for nearly 22 years, and jokes about how unusual that is in his world. ‘She won’t let me go! But no, it is quite something.’ What’s the secret then? ‘Number one, you have to want it to work. Number two, it takes a lot of compromise. Number three, it takes forgiveness.’ Some people can’t make it work, though. ‘I’d never judge, but I
do think sometimes people give up too easily. It’s easy to walk away. It’s harder to stay.’
Perhaps this is a good time to switch over to Brian Mcfadden, who’s preparing to marry wife number three. In his Westlife heyday he was married to Kerry Katona of Atomic Kitten fame, mother of his two daughters. They married in 2002, but divorced acrimoniously in 2006, by which time he was seeing another singer, Delta Goodrem (‘If someone falls out of love with you, there’s nothing you can do about it,’ sniffed Kerry on Loose Women).
Since then, the pair’s efforts to co-parent have gone hand in hand with swipes at each other. Earlier this year Brian claimed their daughters are ‘probably sick’ of being bridesmaids thanks to their mother getting married ‘about five times’. Kerry, 39, who has in fact been married only three times, retorted with, ‘That’s Bri for you, trying to be funny but being a bit of a d**k in the process!’
Brian is not averse to going up the aisle, though. In 2012 he married model Vogue Williams but they divorced in 2017, and Vogue went on to wed Pippa Middleton’s brother-in-law Spencer Matthews. Brian is reluctant to comment on that today. He is now engaged to Danielle Parkinson, a PE teacher he’s been with for four years. He says his way of working now allows him to have a happy professional and personal life. ‘I’m at a different stage in my life with her,’ he says. ‘The
relationship you’re in at 16 is different to the one you’re in at 40. You’re older and wiser.’
Also, Danielle travels with him. ‘So I’m not sacrificing my home life. Danielle is with me, whether in a hotel or at home.’ They were hoping to marry next summer, but the pandemic has scuppered their plans. ‘It might not be possible to have a summer wedding,’ he says. ‘Four of my friends who were getting married this year have had to put their weddings off till next year, so we might have to push it back. But I don’t think the wedding is the priority. It’s being with someone you want to spend the rest of your life with.’
As for the new album, Brian hasn’t always been complimentary about Westlife songs. When on Dancing On Ice he seemed to have a pop at Mandy, their 2003 No 1. But both men agree that it’s the big hits – from both bands – that fans want to hear.
Brian has been writing some new songs during lockdown, and the next phase of Boyzlife will be an album of their own work. So all this contented home life hasn’t given them an appetite for retirement? ‘Never,’ says Keith. ‘We’re only getting started.’