Ronan Keating regrets hurting Boyzone bandmates to pursue solo career

Ronan Keating regrets "hurting" his Boyzone bandmates when he "left them behind" to pursue a solo career.

The pop star has been looking back on his rise to fame in the Irish boyband as part of a new documentary called Boyzone: No Matter What and Ronan has admitted he feels bad about some of the decisions he made when he launched himself as a solo artist as the group split in 1999.

He told The Telegraph newspaper: "[Watching the interviews for the documentary forced me to] confront the fact that I'd hurt my friends and I'd left them behind.

"Some part of me, deep inside, wasn't OK with some of the decisions I'd made."

However, he insists he was right to take the opportunities that were presented to him. Ronan added: "I also know that in the history of boy bands, nobody ever turns down the opportunities I had.

"Nobody wants to walk away from a stadium-filling solo career. ... [Robbie Williams and Justin Timberlake] did the same thing. And, like me, they ­reunited with their groups years later … "

The group reunited in 2008 prior to the death of bandmember Stephen Gately in 2009, and in the documentary, Ronan admits he's pleased the surviving members are still on good terms.

He said: "You have to remember, we were not friends when we started out. We didn't go to university together like Coldplay.

"We were put together and made to get on. There were always going to be cracks … It's pretty impressive that 30 years on — Jesus, 30 years! — we still get along."

Ronan previously admitted Boyzone were "five young lads thrown to the wolves" after they were created by manager Louis Walsh in 1993.

In a chat about the documentary, Ronan explained the young pop stars had no idea how to handle their sudden stardom.

He told the Guardian: "We were five young lads, thrown to the wolves. To cope with the pressures of fame, we ran on bravado and bottled everything up.

"Thirty years on, it seemed important to take an honest look at what happened. There were times it was uncomfortable — painful, actually — to hear what the other lads had to say."

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