He was married to her for 17 years, but Ronan Keating confesses he never truly felt understood by his ex-wife Yvonne. In fact, he insists, it was only once he met his new spouse Storm that he finally knew what love was.
“I really don’t think Yvonne got me at all – definitely not in the important ways,” admits Ronan, shaking his head in an exclusive interview with Woman’s Day. “Partly that’s because we got married very young and I didn’t really know myself or understand anything. “It’s only as you grow that you settle into your skin, and realise who you are and what you stand for. That takes time, so you’re very lucky if you have that in your early years. I didn’t – it took me time!
“Also, I was trying to live up to other people’s expectations and responsibilities, trying to be the person people wanted me to be, rather than just being myself. But now, with Storm, I’ve found somebody who does understand me and loves me for who I really am. That’s a great feeling.”
Romantic Ronan has written some songs for his wife on the new album.
The 39-year-old former lead singer of ’90s pop group Boyzone married childhood sweetheart Yvonne Connolly, 42 – the mother of this three children, Jack, 17, Missy, 15, and Ali, 10 – in 1998, but they divorced after Ronan’s affair with a back-up dancer.
Then, on the set of The X Factor Australia, the talent-show judge met Queensland-born TV producer and model Storm Uechtritz, 34. After their 2015 wedding in Scotland, the “When You Say Nothing at All” singer says he finally has the support and acceptance he’s always craved. He grins, “It’s like the curtains have been pulled back and the light’s come in.”
Ronan and his first wife Yvonne were childhood sweethearts.
Ronan and Storm with his “incredible kids” (from left) Missy, Jack and Ali.
“I know that all sounds a bit namby-pamby, but that’s the way it is – it’s that wonderful feeling of understanding and all of it starting to make sense.
“Then you start to feel how you’re supposed to feel – how you hear people feel when they’re in a relationship, in love. Man, it was terrible, but now I feel like this is the time of my life,” he says.
Here’s a look back at Ronan’s Boyzone days – watch the band perform their hit ‘No Matter What’ in the video below
