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Ronan Keating has admitted he is ‘struggling’ four months after the devastating death of his older brother Ciaran.
Ciaran Keating tragically died in a horror car crash in July as he travelled with his wife Ann Marie to watch their son Ruairí play football in Ballymiles. He was aged 57.
Ronan, 46, appeared on a Loose Women special on Friday, Loose Men’s, where he candidly spoke about the past ‘tough few months’.
‘We’re struggling, to be honest, it’s been a tough few months dealing with it because it was so quick, so immediate, so fast, unexpected,’ the Boyzone singer said.
‘We’re still figuring it all out. What we are doing is we’re talking to each other, and we have each other to lean on, and that’s really, really important. It’s all about communication and talking about it.
‘People come up to you in the street saying, “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear about your brother, I lost my dad”, or “I lost my mum” or “I lost my brother”.
‘And it’s their way of sharing and trying to be on a level with you and understand, but you’re in your own head. You’re in so much pain – it’s like, ‘You don’t understand, you don’t understand what I’m going through.’
Ronan is the youngest of five children, with one sister, Linda, and three brothers – Ciaran, Gerard and Gary.
The singer continued: ‘To have my siblings there – especially in the couple of weeks after that we were just rallying around each other. We have a WhatsApp group, the four of us now, and we talk everyday, check in, “How are you doing today? How are you feeling?”
The songwriter said he is having weekly therapy sessions to work through his grief.
He said: ‘What therapy does, my weekly sessions, is give me the tools to understand who I am and what I’ve been through.
‘Whether it’s trauma like losing my brother, or it’s adoration and all of a sudden that adoration is gone, how to deal with that – all these things, the highs and the lows. Somebody has to teach you how to deal with these things.’
Father-of-three Ciaran suffered fatal injuries as he was travelling at around 3.35pm with his wife on a stretch of road known as a black-spot for accidents.
The car salesman and his wife had been driving to watch their son Ruairí, 28, play for Cork City in a League of Ireland match with Sligo Rovers, when their car collided with another vehicle.
The crash came just days before soccer player Ruairí’s 28th birthday.
Ronan is said to have been playing golf in St Albans, Hertfordshire, with his wife Storm, 41, before learning of the crash.
During Ciaran’s funeral, Ronan performed a heartbreaking rendition of This Is Your Song in a moving tribute to his brother.
He told mourners during the service: ‘I shouldn’t be singing it in these circumstances but we are and we will.’
The Irish singer said the ballad was written after their mother, Marie, died of cancer in 1998.
The touching song includes the lyrics: ‘You were our friend, walk with you till the end, and one day we’ll all sing along, ’cause this is your song.’
The Irish star is also participating in Loose Men’s first ever campaign Half-Time Team Talk, supported by West Ham United.
Ronan made his debut alongside footballing legend – and former West Ham manager – Harry Redknapp, Vernon Kay, and Ore Oduba.
The campaign kicks off with critical questions about mental health, aiming to tackle the taboos that revolves around it.
