Must have been love but it’s over now
Ronan and Yvonne Keating, a seemingly unshakeable couple in the notoriously tremorous world of celebrity, have separated.
Their split, after 12 years of marriage was announced on Ronan’s website yesterday in a two line statement that said the pair were making the announcement “with great sadness”.
It said: “The separation is amicable and they will continue to work together in order to provide the best for their children. The family ask for privacy at this difficult time.”
The news was as much a surprise to celebrity watchers as the couple’s secret Caribbean wedding in 1998, just a few months after they went public on their romance.
At the time, remarks were made that the Boyzone frontman had married too quickly while still in an emotional maelstrom after the death of his beloved mother, Marie, in whose memory he set up the Marie Keating Foundation for breast cancer awareness and support.
Some said the marriage between the then 21-year-old singer and his 24-year-old bride couldn’t last. But Ronan said he had known model Yvonne Connolly, as she was then, since he was 10 and she was 13, and had loved her all his life.
Even yesterday morning there was no hint of the personal upheaval the couple were facing when Ronan appeared on British TV with his Boyzone band mates, smiling, joking and wearing his wedding ring.
The couple have three children: Jack, 11; Marie, 9, and Ali, 5. And Ronan has often spoken of the central role family has in his life, presenting himself as a normal dad who does the school runs despite his success and the family’s €4 million address at the exclusive Abington estate in Malahide, Dublin.
But in an interview last year Yvonne spoke of Ronan’s multi-faceted career and the strains his absences put on the relationship, while also expressing her desire to have more children and revive her own career.
When Boyzone split in 1999, Ronan maintained a hectic schedule as solo performer and songwriter while also keeping up his charity work. In recent months he has been touring solo and with the reformed Boyzone, as well as presenting a show on a London radio station and preparing to move down under for the summer after clinching a role as a judge on Australian X Factor.
His ability to continually reinvent himself ensured he is one of the great survivors of an industry where longevity is a rarity. But it now seems the one casualty of the career he worked so hard to maintain was his marriage.
Facing into another lengthy period thousands of miles apart, Ronan and his wife chose yesterday – three weeks after their 12th wedding anniversary – to announce they were separating.
Boyzone manager Louis Walsh, who has known the singer since he was 16, said he had no idea the break-up was coming and family members also seemed taken by surprise.
Keating is thought to be worth about €10m, much of which he is likely to lose in a divorce. The couple have so far made no mention of divorce, which under Irish law cannot be applied for until they are apart for at least four years.
