Former Boyzone member Shane Lynch has said he won't be performing with the band again and that he has quit show business for good.
The 46-year-old Dubliner formed the boyband with Ronan Keating, Mikey Graham, Keith Duffy, and the late Stephen Gately nearly three decades ago but the father of two now says he has stepped back from the limelight because it was having a negative impact on his family.
Lynch says he is "very happy not to be a part of that world anymore", adding that he has no issues with the remaining members of the band performing without him.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, he said, "I won’t be performing with them again.
"They might not know exactly. I haven’t gone to them saying, 'Boys, I’m not coming back to the band.’ I’ve just been very open that I’m out of the industry - music, TV, and everything."
He says there are no hard feelings between him and his former bandmates. "It’s not like I got a phone call to ask, ‘What are you doing that for?’ We’d no plans to do anything anyway," he said.
"They can absolutely crack on without me. I love the boys, so I’ll watch them. Don’t be gutted."
Lynch currently lives in Cheshire in northern England with his actress wife of 16 years, Sheena White and their two daughters, Billie (14) and Marley (10).
His latest television appearance on Pilgrimage, currently airing on BBC, sees him and six other celebrities trekking across northern Portugal to Fatima.
"I think for me there is certain head spaces in life we all need to transition to. You can't just become an adult and be the same adult for the rest of your life," he said.
"My life for 30 years had been one particular Shane Lynch from Boyzone, and I’m done with that. Everything I’ve done up to this last TV show was the same repetitive lifestyle.
"I don’t want to do that anymore. It’s as simple as that."
Lynch’s family featured on ITV’s reality show The Real Housewives of Cheshire and he says that Pilgrimage will be his last ever TV show.
"I haven’t filmed this year," he said. They got me in one scene, only because Tash Hamilton joined the cast, and she is from Atomic Kitten. They asked me if I would film with her, just talking about the old days, so I agreed to that, but I don’t film any more.
"When the cameras come into the house, they film the kids and the wife and I’m out."
