TRUTH BEHIND MY PAP PIX; Kian Egan 'We had a used tampon thrown at

This is a very old picture of me and Bryan. We've grown up so much since then, especially him, as he's married with kids. He and Kerry's relationship was great from the start and since Molly and Lily were born it's brought a real family feel to the band. It's amazing when someone so close to you has a child. It's definitely brought us back down to earth.

Aah, New Year's Eve in Belfast. I only went out with Liz McLarnon for a little while, but I'm sick of the papers saying that I was ringing her drunk, begging her to come back to me - it was all coming from her camp. She wasn't a strange cookie when I was with her but with everything in the papers and the phone calls she was making to me, I was like, 'What's with this girl?' I don't speak to her now. If we were in the same room together I'd be polite, but I don't think she would be.

I love spending time with my family. This is with some of them in my old front garden three years ago. When I get enough time off I go straight home to Sligo, in west Ireland. When we were small, my parents didn't expect me to become a star. But my family's extremely musical - my little brother Colm, who's only nine, plays drums and guitar, my sister Fenella plays piano and my oldest brother Gavin is a music teacher. Neither my mum or dad play music, but my dad's a music freak. None of us ever expected Westlife to get to where we have. I think my parents were taken aback at first, but now they don't pay any attention.

My girlfriend Jodi Albert and I have been going out nearly six months but we actually met years ago. Jodi was signed to Simon Cowell in a band called Girl Thing, but she was only 15 at the time, so I decided to stay away. I fancied her the first time I met her but Simon was like, 'No! Not for you. Don't touch her.' I think he didn't want young girls to dislike her band because I was seeing her. We became good friends and stayed in contact, then earlier this year I asked her to come along to a show. When I saw her, I thought. 'Yep. Definitely.'

Look at Shane, he looks like Enrique Iglesias. This was funny as hell. Girls flash at us all the time. Originally, this one was shaking her boobs in Bryan's face and then she went over to go to Shane - that's why he's going, 'Yikes!' Things like that slowly started happening to us - we were eased into it, from dirty letters to kinky underwear and photos being sent. The worst was a used tampon thrown at us in Italy. I really don't know if that was an affectionate thing.

We were at the party for the launch of our Greatest Hits album last year. There's nothing going on - I was just asked to have my photo taken with Sarah Harding from Girls Aloud. Louis Walsh manages both us and Girls Aloud so we'd met them loads of times. Sarah looks quite silly. I don't know why she's doing that.

This was last year, on our World Of Our Own tour. I wasn't expecting Earl's Court to be so huge. To do five nights at that time was quite a big deal, Coldplay only did two. The outfit idea was a Batman thing mixed with The Matrix. They were good for the show but the leather jackets were way too big and heavy. They cost pounds 2,500 each. I still have that jacket - I keep all my costumes. In 10 years' time I'm sure I'll want to get them out and have a look. I lend them to people for fancy dress parties now.

Will you look at the state of me, my earring, my hair - Jesus! I was 17 then and this was the original Westlife line-up - Graham Keighron, me and Shane in the front, our Mark and Michael Garrett at the back. We were called IOU then. Graham and Michael didn't make the cut when we met our manager Louis Walsh. Graham was the hardest to let go as he was my best mate. We're all still friends. Michael was quite bitter about it, but now if we see each other we'll talk. Graham worked with us for a while as our tour manager but he now works in the local pub.

MY 'FIVE LADS AND A SUPERMODEL' PIC

We remade Uptown Girl for the 2001 Comic Relief record and it was a big hit for us. Claudia Schiffer came in, did the video and left. We would have been way too shy to chat to her and ask her about David Copperfield. I just said hello. Did I have a poster of Claudia Schiffer? I think I might have. Was she the one in the sand in a bikini? I think I had her, Pamela Anderson and Mel C. I used to like that sporty look at the very start of the Spice Girls. Hey, I don't know - I was a kid! If we did another video with Claudia now, we'd be much more upfront, messing about. Now we don't get that starstruck.

Copyright 2003 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.