Kian Egan: Nicky and Brian ’the ugly ones’ in Westlife

Former Westlife singer Kian Egan said he challenged pop mogul Simon Cowell over claims the Irish group were "the ugliest" boyband he had worked with.

Egan, one-fifth of the chart-toppers signed by Cowell, said The X Factor judge quickly backtracked on his comments when asked to clarify them — although Egan admitted two of the band were ugly.

Speaking to Phil Williams on BBC Radio 5 live, Egan joked Nicky Byrne and Brian McFadden were the least attractive because they are Dubliners. The rest of the band are from Sligo.

The 34-year-old, who was crowned king of the jungle in last year’s I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here, said: “I interviewed him [Cowell] a few weeks ago for a television show and I asked him: ‘So, come on, you say Westlife was the ugliest band you ever had,’ and he said: ‘Well now kiddo, I wasn’t talking about you’...”

According to Egan, Cowell said when he first saw the band in the 1990s, one of his initial reactions was “that you were the ugliest looking band.”

Egan said: “I understand where he was coming from because the band that he first saw, is not the band that he signed.

“As time went on, the band changed, there was six of us originally, and then when Louis [Walsh] started managing us, and when we met Simon, Louis started changing people in the band for a while...”

Westlife split in 2012, and Egan said there is no talk “whatsoever” of a reunion.