Boyzone star Shane Lynch has been remembering his late bandmate Stephen Gately, telling his fellow Celebrity Big Brother housemates that there will "always be five" of them in the group.

The singer recalled fond memories with Gately, who died of natural causes in 2009 aged 33, during a chat with US singer Ginuwine on the reality show.

The Dublin native explained that he had never been a lead singer, seeing himself as "the wing man not the sing man", but that Gately had been one.

"One of our bandmates, he died. It was '09 he died. And he was one of the leads too," he said.

He continued: "He was 33 when he died. When that happened, we were in the middle of making a new album. And at that point we were like, 'What do we do? Do we call it a day? Is there no more Boyzone? Is that it?'

Stephen Gately, Keith Duffy, Ronan Keating, Mikey Graham and Shane Lynch of Boyzone in 2007

"But every time we got together as a group, the four of us came together, it was very apparent that he was alive, when we came together.

"Because that was our bubble. He's so there. So we'll always be five, regardless of visually what you see. He will always be there."

Lynch's words moved viewers and had many fans paying tribute to Gately all over again.

"Admire #CBBShaneL talking about Stephen Gately and opening up. He definitely had a unique voice that probably stood out more than Ronan's voice," said one person on Twitter.

Another said: "What a nice chap @shanelynchlife is ! Thought it was very moving how he spoke about the passing of dear Stephen Gately."

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