Tears flowed at the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin yesterday when Bryan McFadden announced his departure from Westlife to spend more time with his young family. Alison Healy reports.
A group of teenage girls wailed and clutched each other as they waited behind barriers at the hotel to catch a glimpse of their heroes who were holding a press conference inside.
"There's no point in Westlife going on without Bryan," said a distraught Grace Moore (16). "They just won't last. I can't believe it."
Dubliner Stacey Caffrey (16) was inconsolable. "It's all going to be different now," she said between sobs. "It's just horrible. Some people mightn't care about this but for their fans it's really important."
Inside, band member Kian Egan broke down as he read out a tribute to Bryan McFadden.
Bryan's wife Kerry cried and dabbed her eyes at the back of the packed room. A burly security guard stood protectively in front of her and the other "Westlife wives", Gillian Filan and Georgina Byrne.
A doleful Shane Filan said it was like a marriage ending, or like breaking up with a girl after six years. "And we didn't even get to sleep together," fellow band member Nicky Byrne added helpfully.
However, their upbeat manager Louis Walsh rubbished reports of the band's demise and said it was still "business as usual" .
"And I think they are going to be the biggest boy band in the world, as they always have been," he added defiantly.
Westlife have sold more than 32 million records since 1999. The boyband have had 12 UK No 1s, with their first seven songs entering the charts at No 1. The five-member band, from Sligo and Dublin, have performed to over one million fans on three arena tours.
All band members insisted that there was no bad blood about the departure. "This has absolutely nothing to do with the guys," Bryan McFadden said. "This is completely to do with me. Basically it's very, very hard to juggle two lives."
He said he had been unable to give 100 per cent to the band and to his family, particularly since his second child was born a year ago.
He had been thinking about leaving the band for about six months and gave the other band members his decision last week.
Asked if he was going to work in television, he said he had "absolutely nothing lined up, not musically, not TV, nothing". He said he had no plans to work with his wife Kerry, who recently won the I'm a Celebrity - Get Me Out of Here! contest.
Last Sunday, a song he co-wrote, If the World Stopped Turning, was chosen as Ireland's entry in this year's Eurovision Song Contest.
Westlife is about to embark on a four-month world tour, beginning in Belfast on March 29th.