My heartbreak when Bryan quit Westlife
Taken from: Now Magazine, July 2004

Jungle queen Kerry says she's ecstatic at having her husband Bryan McFadden at home more often

EXCLUSIVE

Kerry McFadden says it was a shock to her when Bryan revealed he was quitting one of the biggest boy bands in the world, just days before it became official

Kerry McFadden's revealed that she got the shock of her life when her husband Bryan told her he was leaving his chart-topping band Westlife after five years.

Bryan broke the news to Kerry only a few days before his departure from the boyband was announced to the world back in March. And she says: "I was heartbroken when he told me, because Westlife had been our whole life. I was more upset than Bryan was."

"I swear I didn't know he was leaving until five days before it was announced. When he told me, I thought: 'Oh my God, what on earth are you doing?' But Bryan's one of those people who once he's made up his mind, that's it - and nobody and nothing can change it."

"Bryan had mentioned the possibility of quitting six months before, but I never really thought anything of it. So when he told me he was leaving for real, I was shocked."

Kerry insists it was entirely Bryan's decision to leave the band for forge a solo career, and that rumours she pressured him into it are unfounded. But there's no doubt she's ecstatic he'll have more time for their daughters Molly, nearly three, and 17-month-old Lilly Sue.

Bryan's also pouring his energies into managing South African rock band Franklin. "My new band's going to rule the world," he's declared.

"Now he can make his own decisions about having time off", says Kerry. "He couldn't do that before. Also, it's nice that he has his job and I have mine - we can both come home at night and tell each other what we've been up to - it keeps things more interesting between us."

Kerry, who became TV's Queen Of The Jungle earlier this year when she won I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! has also recently made a life-changing career move. She's all set to get her teeth into her first acting role in a new Irish film called "Showbands", which also stars Deidre O'Kane and Michael McElhatton.

"Acting's my ideal job, to be honest with you", she says.

"I'm really, really excited about 'Showbands' as well as being a bit nervous about it."

"But people who are involved in the film are all experienced actors and I'm sure they wouldn't ask me to be in the film if I couldn't do it.", she says confidently.

As if that's not enough to keep the mother-of-two on her toes, Kerry's also returning to the popluar ITV chat show Loose Women. "Loose Women's doing so well because it's on lunch time when there are a lot of housewives at home, as well as people on their lunch break," she says. "And it reaches out to all ages, from teenagers to the oldest women you can think of."

"But it's mostly because us girls just love to have a gossip, a good debate and a good row - you've got a bit of everything in there really."

As NOW revealed in May, Kerry and Bryan have been on a strict fitness drive and have lost 3st between them. "Bryan's lost over 2st on the Atkins diet", says Kerry. "He goes on it and off it when he needs to and it's definitely worked for him. He also hasn't touched a drop of alcohol in the past four months."

"He's not a big drinker anyway - he's always been one of those people who'll have two pints and he's drunk. But I need to have a drink if I'm at the pub or there's no point in going. Now Bryan doesn't even like the taste of booze any more," she laughs. In fact, 24-year-old Bryan has swapped the Guinness for sugar-free energy drink these days.

Kerry, who's lost a stone, says that exercise doesn't come naturally to her. "I go to the gym whenever I can fit it in and I have a personal trainer now," she says.

"But I'm a lazy cow at heart and I need somebody to physically drag me there!"

Life hasn't always been this sweet for Kerry. As a child growing up in Warrington, Cheshire, she didn't have much of a family life. She attended eight schools, lived in three refuges and was taken into care at just 13 after seeing her mother, who suffered from manic depression, threatened with a knife by her lover.

Her fourth set of foster parents, Margaret and Fred Woodall, became the closest to a normal family that she ever had, with engineer Fred even giving her away when she tied the knot with Dublin-born Bryan in January 2002.

Kerry cited her troubled background has driving force behind her unerring devotion as a wife and mother.

"When I was in the jungle the worst feeling was missing my kids and Bryan - we'd never spent that much time apart without talking to each other", she said.

"There really isn't a day that goes by without Bryan and I talking on the phone. We usually speak 10 or 12 times daily. It was really hard not knowing how the kids were."

The fortnight Kerry spent in the jungle was an experience she says she'll never forget - though she wishes she could wipe her memory clean of the bushtucker trial when she had to eat cockroaches, worms, ants and grubs.

"I'm very proud of myself - I never thought I'd last that long, let alone win it," she laughed.

"After the jungle I turned down a hell of a lot of work because I didn't want to be overexposed. I think people can get bored of celebrities really quickly and it's a very fickle business I'm in - God, I'd get bored of myself!"

"I'm only 23 and I've done so much, but I want to be in this business for the long haul. I want to get another 10 or 20 years out of it - fingers crossed."

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