Westlife's Shane Filan reveals heartbreaking loss of both parents in emotional Loose Women interview
Shane Filan has opened up about the grief of losing both his parents within the space of ten months and revealed how he broke down in tears at a Westlife concert in Belfast recently.
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Speaking on Loose Women in a Westlife panel takeover on Friday, the singer revealed that he got upset after realising that it was the first concert he had performed at since his parents’ death.
WATCH: Shane Filan reveals the time he broke down in tears on stage recently
When asked about the last time he cried in a discussion about the British stiff upper lip, Shane revealed: "The last time I had a cry, a couple of months ago lads, you’ll remember we did a concert for BBC Radio 2 in Belfast. It was a very emotional night and obviously, my parents passed away in the last year and a half and I don’t think I had that moment when I properly cried."
He continued: "I bottled it up and I didn’t realise I was bottling it up. I cried, obviously when they passed away, but then for a long time I didn’t cry and I felt like, 'I’m kind of dealing okay with this,' and I felt like I should be worse."
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"But then we did the show in Belfast and for some reason, I’d been feeling really weird all day and I was going on stage and I kind of felt nervous for the first time, where I’m usually really excited and we’re all buzzing."
Westlife took over the Loose Women panel on Friday
"I went on the stage and just choked. I felt like I was choking up for the whole performance. I got through the performance somehow, but at the end [during] You Raise Me Up, I started balling and crying in the middle of the song."
Fellow bandmate Markus Feehily added: "I thought I was going to have to jump in because I didn’t think you would get through it," to which Shane responded: "I looked at you a couple of times, I was like, 'Ah man, I don’t know," and I just turned around and started crying my eyes out."
"I realised that it was the first time I was doing a Westlife show without my parents and I was never going to do one ever again. It was tough," he added.
The singer also revealed that his bandmates supported him following his breakdown on stage. He said: "In fairness to you afterwards, it was amazing because I ran off stage, went upstairs, had a big cry and you were all there for me."
Shane lost both of his parents to cancer, with his father passing away in October last year and his mother less than a year before that.
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