Nicky Byrne

NICKY BYRNE!

Info

Full Name: Nicholas Bernard James Adam Byrne
Date of birth: 9th October 1978
Star Sign: Libra
Place of birth: Dublin
School: Returned to Plunkit College after spending two years with Leeds Football Club
Where do you live now: Baldoyle - Dublin with my parents
Colour of eyes: Blue
Height: 5ft 9 and a half

Inside leg measurement: 30 1/2
Chest: 38-40
Shoe size: 7 1/2
Any tattoos: A Celtic design that goes across his lower back
(photo below courtesy of Carolien, scanned by Evelien - thanx!)

Scars/marks: Scar on right elbow
Family: parents Nicholas and Yvonne, one sister Gillian (22) and one brother Adam (11)



Childhood photos:
   

Personality

Describe yourself in three words: Thoughtful, reliable, trustworthy
Bad habit: Drinking tea with the spoon still in the cup
Rule of Life: "Never think that anyone's better than you, and never think that you are better than anyone else"
Phrase that you use often: Le Grá it means with love in Irish
If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be? a fox or a tiger
Dream house: Big house just outside Dublin
Most embarassing moment: falling over at Elland Road, Leeds United's stadium in front of 30,000 people

(photo below thanks to Kristin Beckner)

Likes/Dislikes

Hobbies: Football and snooker
Instrument: Learning to play piano
Likes: Football (especially Man U and Leeds cos he used to be the goalie in the junior team), eating out, shopping and travelling home to Ireland to see his family
Dislikes: Smoking and nasty people
Worst class(es): I was never any good at maths
Best class(es): English was easy and geography wasn’t bad
Fave sport(s): Soccer and snooker
Fave actor: Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt
Fave actress: Demi Moore, Cameron Diaz
Fave male singer: Phil Collins
Fave female singer: Natalie Imbruglia
Most like to meet: Phil Collins, Madonna
Best movie ever: Titanic, Die Hard, Armageddon
Fave cereal: Sugar Puffs
Fave food: Sunday dinner, Mum's cooking, Japanese
Worst food: Prawns
Fave soft drink: Pepsi
McDonalds or Burger King: McDonalds definitely
Fave place to chill: My couch in my front living room in Dublin
Fave place to visit: Caribbean or New York or Sydney
Fave football team: Manchester United
Fave perfume, men’s: Dolce & Gabbana
Fave perfume, women’s: CK Eternity
Fave clothes: smart clothes
Fave designer: Gucci
Fave colour: Blue or white or black
Fave book: The Mammy by Bruce O'Carroll
Fave group: Boyzone
Fave song: Phil Collins - 'Against all Odds', What I want Is What I've Got
First record you bought: Kylie Minogue - 'I Should Be So Lucky'
First concert: The Cranberries in Dublin
U2 or B*Witched: U2
BSB or Boyzone: Boyzone

Lovelife!

Blondes or brunettes: Depends
Ideal woman: Elegant, smart, humourous, nice eyes
Have a girlfriend: Nicky married Georgina Ahern, Irish premier Bertie Ahern's daughter, on 4 August 2003. The bride wore jeans for her groom in the red cap 

In one of the worst-kept showbusiness secrets of recent years, Georgina Ahern, daughter of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, married Nicky Byrne, singer with Westlife, in a civil ceremony on 4 August 2003. Details of the ceremony in Wicklow town had been tightly-guarded to keep secure a deal where the couple is being paid nearly €1 million by a magazine for exclusive rights to a later church ceremony and reception in France. But yesterday at 3.42 p.m. when the bride arrived wearing jeans and a casual top, more than 20 photographers and journalists were there to capture the event, after details of the ceremony emerged in newspapers over the weekend. Some 15 minutes later the groom arrived for the short ceremony, and was bustled in through the back entrance of the East Coast Area Health Board's Wicklow district headquarters, where the county's registry office is located. A crowd of 200, including media, Westlife fans and locals, had assembled outside to watch the couple's arrival. Both 24-years-old, they are childhood sweethearts. The Taoiseach was not there to give his eldest daughter away, and the bride's younger sister, Cecilia, who will be matron of honour at the church ceremony, was also absent. Ms Ahern was accompanied by her mother, Miriam, who wore a cream trouser suit and black top. The groom was accompanied by his mother Yvonne, while his father, Nikki, brother and sister and a small number of guests also attended. While the ceremony was ongoing, health board officials blocked the entry of journalists and fans to the building, on grounds of health and safety. Within minutes this was being circumvented by young Westlife fans who insisted they had to go to the bathroom, leaving no option but for officials to chaperone them to and from the toilet. Throughout the afternoon flurries of excitement rippled through the fans and the press pack whenever a dark 4x4, a popular form of transport for celebrities, was spotted. However with the 4x4 also being one of the most popular forms of transport in the Wicklow hills, flurries were frequent and unfounded. There was a heavy private security presence as the couple arrived and left separately through a rear entrance in an attempt to prevent the couple being photographed together or having to face journalists' questions. Either could jeopardise that €1 million deal with Hello! magazine. It has bought exclusive interview and photography rights for the couple's church ceremony on Saturday at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Gallardon, 60 km south of Paris, and for the reception nearby for 400 people at the exclusive Chateau d'Escilmont.

Pictures from the wedding ceremony in France, 9 August 2003:
    
 

From Puppy Love to Perfect Love

Devoted Georgina Ahern and Nicky Byrne’s romance began as puppy love… but turned into a deep lasting passion that is the stuff of fairytales. Cupid’s arrow first struck the pair’s eyes at the age of twelve. But it took three years before the youngsters overcame their agonising teenage shyness and arranged a date. The rest, as they say, is history. Neither 23-year-old Georgina nor 24-year-old Nicky has ever dated anyone else. Smitten westlife hunk Nicky says of his bride: “She is my morning, noon and night. She’s my everything.” And lovestruck Georgina says of her groom: “He is totally and completely my life.” The childhood sweethearts knew right from the start that they were meant to be together forever.

Belief

Nicky has said: “I went home at the end of the first day and told mum, ‘I’ve found the girl I’m going to marry’. “My mum just laughed at me. How could I possibly know who I was going to marry at that age-but I did know.” That belief in eachother and their future together has seen them survive the pressure of Georgina being swept into the spotlight as ‘the Taoiseach’s daughter’ when Bertie came to power in 1997. It has also seen them through the trials and tribulations of Nicky’s meteoric rise from unknown wannabe to boyband heartthrob. Nicky describes Georgina as “his rock” and confesses he doesn’t know how he’d survive without her. Yet because Westlife manager Louis Walsh initially slapped a marriage ban on Nicky and bandmates Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Bryan McFadden and Shane Filan, it was not until last Christmas Day that the pair got engaged. The delay did not worry Georgina for as far as she was concerned; they were already inextricably tied together. For at the age of 15, romantic Nicky had given her a simple white gold ring which she wore on her wedding finger. Speaking on her 21st birthday, Georgina said: “It’s a white Russian wedding ring and only fits the third finger of each hand. Nicky gave it to me when we were first dating. It means a lot to me.”

Gazed

She now wears a diamond ring, which Nicky presented to her on bended knee when he asked her officially to be his bride. And yesterday (August 9th 2003), the pair’s glittering wedding in Paris-the Capital of Love-sealed their devotion. It was a far cry from the early years when the pair sat opposite eachother in science classes and gazed at eachother with unrequited love. In an interview given to a magazine in 2001, Nicky says: “The first thing I noticed about her were those eyes. It was like, oh my god, I could get lost in those eyes “From the moment I saw Georgina I put her on a pedestal. I could have a conversation with anyone but I couldn’t talk to Georgina. I was afraid that whatever I said would come out sounding stupid and she’d think I was a fool. “We’d literally stare at eachother through science lessons. In business studies, I’d pass her desk and we’d smile at eachother.” During the same interview Georgina said: “All the girls fancied him like mad, me included. “When I first saw him in his smart new uniform, he was posing against the corridor wall. I was hopeless at helping him break the ice. We just looked at eachother from our desks.” Ten months after the duo finally got together, they were torn apart. Nicky, a promising goalkeeper, was whisked away to train for Leeds United. But he missed his love so much, he cried himself to sleep every night. He has said: “The time I spent in Leeds United was terrible. I was trying to get home all the time.” Georgina encouraged him to stick it out, however-then picked up the pieces when he was axed from the youth team for being “too short”. She has been there for him ever since, celebrating the highs and consoling him during the lows. So it comes as no surprise to hear Nicky say: “If it wasn’t for Georgina I wouldn’t be the person I am today.” And if it wasn’t for Nicky, Georgina wouldn’t be the woman she is today. They are truly a couple who were made for eachother – as their closest pals confirmed following yesterdays romantic ceremony. Westlife hunk Bryan said: “The service was lovely, it was beautiful, and Georgina looked gorgeous.” Ex-Atomic Kitten wife Kerry beamed: “It was so beautiful, I had a tear in my eye.” Westlife boss Louis Walsh added: “I’ve had a great day. It’s been great fun.” Ronan Keating who arrived with wife Yvonne and sang at the church said: “It has been an honour. It was a special day and it was nice to be a part of it.” It was the perfect day for a wedding with the sun beaming down from morning ‘til dusk. As temperatures soared to 44C - the hottest day in France for over 40 years - curious Gallardon villagers gathered to watch a glittering cavalcade of celebrities arrive at the church. Caroline Downey, wife of MCD supremo Denis Desmond was among the first to arrive just after 2pm French time - 1pm here. She was alone as her hubby was masterminded the mammoth Robbie Williams concert back in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. Then at 2.20pm there was a flurry of excitement when three of the Westlife hunks arrived with their partners. Bryan and Kerry, Kian and Hollyoaks girlfriend Jodi Albert, and Shane and fiance Gillian Walsh happily let the crowd take snaps. Mark also posed for pictures when he arrived alone later. Other guests included Girls Aloud cutie Kimberly Walsh, soccer legend Brian Robson, music industry heavyweights Nikki Chapman and Bill Hughes, pop Svengali Simon Cowell and Irish international and Leeds United ace Ian Harte. But the wedding party, including Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, stayed out of sight after being bought up for E1 million by glossy mag Hello! Security was tight as top French security officers from the esteemed ‘Le Service de Protection des Hotes’ followed closely behind the Taoiseach’s car. But despite not even getting a second’s glimpse of Nicky and Georgina, westlife fan Sonia Denkhider said her trip from Genoa, Italy, had been worth it. The 19-year-old gushed: “Nicky has always been my favourite and even though I didn’t get to see him today, I still wanted to be at his wedding. “It’s been a happy day for him and they are a beautiful, special couple.”

NICKY & GEORGINA!

Nicky Byrne and Georgina Ahern met as twelve year olds at their school St. Nessain's Secondary. He first saw her as he was walking into his class and she was sat on the first desk. And, like all hormonal teenagers, he had an immediate crush on her. He claimed that although he noticed all of her, he confessed that, "the first thing I noticed were her eyes. It was just like, Oh my God, I could have lost myself in her eyes!" That day he came home to tell his mam, Yvonne, that he saw the girl he was going to marry. Like all mothers, Yvonne was amused when she heard this. Little does she know.

Today, Nicky and Georgina Byrne is one of the most famous couples in Ireland, often seen out and about in the newly hip Dublin. The couple lives in an exclusive complex in Malahide, where Georgina is from, and is neighbours with the likes of Ronan and Yvonne Keating. Nicky, one fourth of Ireland's biggest boyband, Westlife, and Georgina, a business management graduate, married in France on August 9, 2003 in front of 410 guests. The fairytale wedding sealed their love and commitment to each other. But all wasn't always perfect, certainly not at the beginning...

After seeing Georgina for the first time, Nicky didn't manage to speak to her for two years. He would walk along the corridor several times every day just so he would pass her, even though they were sharing four classes already: business studies, music, choir and science, where they used to sit across from each other and shared glances all throughout the lesson. Unknown to him, she noticed him right from the first day of secondary school: "I remember our first day at school, in the afternoon, when I went back home, some of my friends asked, 'What are the guys like?' I thought of Nicky and said, 'There's only one good-looking guy there, but I don't think he even noticed me.' That's how it seemed."

Georgina's shy nature left it up to Nicky if he wanted to take their friendship further. But the normally outgoing Nicky had been struck down by shyness whenever he was around her, as he recalled, "I'm very shy if I like a girl. I'm not normally shy but if I like a girl I don't know what to say to her because whatever I say, I think she's going to just laugh at me. Whereas if I say nothing then I can't go wrong." What he didn't realise was that she also had developed a crush on him, as did the other girls in school it seemed! She remembered her first impression of him "in his smart new school uniform, his school-bag on his shoulder, he was kind of posing against the corridor wall."

When they were in third year, he finally took the step. He knew a boy from his geography class, Michael Heynes, who took the same bus home with Georgina, so Nicky asked Michael to ask her if she would go out with him.

She said no.

It crushed Nicky and he decided to let it go, at least until he was ready again. However, a year later his best mate, Cause, took the matter to his own hands and asked Georgina's best mate, Anita Tracey to ask Georgina again. Nicky was livid when he found out. Until Anita told him that Georgina had said yes.

Georgina and Nicky first went out together on October 8, 1994 to a party, even though they didn't date properly until a few months later. They did, however, have their first kiss that night. Georgina described the kiss as, "a class act, a perfect kiss." He became her first ever boyfriend.

It's well known that shortly after they became a couple, Nicky joined Leeds United's youth team as a talented goalkeeper. He moved to Leeds, leaving his family and Georgina behind. Two years later, Nicky was sent home to Dublin because, at 5ft and 10in, Leeds United deemed him to be too short to be a professional footballer. He was understandably devastated, but Georgina stood by him. Her strength became his "inspiration".

Georgina tried her best to kept Nicky occupied to help him. When she received her pocket money every Sunday from her dad, she would buy a take away and shared it with Nicky, who was still readjusting from receiving an income from football to suddenly nothing. She kept up her support and optimism when he went to audition for a new boyband Louis Walsh was managing.

The couple have never hidden their relationship from the press and Westlife fans. Long before Nicky became a household name along with the rest of Westlife, Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan and Bryan McFadden, Georgina was already well known as the eldest daughter of Ireland's youngest Prime Minister.

In 2001, the couple bought their first house together, a four-bedroom outside Dublin. An interview with Hello! Magazine revealed that they were still confident about getting married but would not get engaged until Nicky's schedule calmed down and Georgina's studies were done.

The long-awaited proposal happened on Christmas Day 2003, after eight years of being together. Nicky had been planning the proposal months before. He had bought the teardrop-shaped diamond ring he promised her before the band even started. Despite that he waited until Christmas Eve to ask Bertie and Miriam, Georgina's parents, for her hand in marriage.

On Christmas morning, Nicky gave Georgina a Labrador puppy, much to her surprise, as she is scared of dogs. In her own words, Georgina recalled the precious moment: "The last thing I was expecting was to get a dog from Nicky! I'm afraid of dogs and he's always known that. While I was recovering from the shock he said, 'Okay, we have the house, we have our dog, but there's still something that's not quite complete,' and with that he did the whole romantic thing and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was the happiest moment of my life. I'd always hopped he wouldn't do it in front of a whole lot of friends, so for me it was just perfect."

The couple immediately planned a summer wedding and chose Chateau D'Esclimont in Gallardon, France as the venue for their big day. However, they had to register their marriage legally in Ireland before the church ceremony and celebration in France. They planned to do it in London, but decided to do it in their home country instead, opting for county Wicklow on August 5, 2003. The couple arrived along with their mothers, Yvonne Byrne and Miriam Ahern, wearing very casual clothes, Nicky in t-shirt and baseball cap and Georgina in jeans and oriental top. Both Nicky and Georgina didn't consider themselves married until the church ceremony.

On Saturday, August 9, 2003, Nicholas Bernard James Adam Byrne fulfilled his words to his mum and married Georgina Ahern after nine years of strong relationship.

The ceremony was recorded in photography by UK's Hello! Magazine. The colour theme was crËme, lilac and purple. The glowing bride was wearing a beautiful white hourglass strapless dress with heart-shaped neckline, 20,000 crystal beads sewn diagonally and six-foot long train designed especially for her by Synan O'Mahony. Her hair was made to be wavy and little flowers doted at the top. Completing the look was a diamond cross necklace and a bouquet of fresh elegant cream roses. Nicky matched Georgina's look with a cream bootlegged "contemporary retro" suit, designed by Donald Brennan and Niall Tyrell. The grooms men, Nicky called them his "bestest men" and his best man, brother Adam Byrne were wearing dark purple mohair suits with cream roses and purple violets on their buttonholes. While the bridesmaids and maid of honour, Georgina's sister Cecelia Ahern, were wearing "lavender silk-crepe corsets and skirts, overlaid with French lilac Chantilly lace."

The precious day was celebrated with close family and friends, but to Nicky and Georgina, the day was just about them, celebrating a love that has gone through the test of time, crushed dreams, and fame amongst the usual hurdles of relationships. To the public eyes, the couple is a proof that love withstands, that dreams do come true, and that beautiful fairytales do exist.

Georgina gave birth to fraternal twin sons, Jay and Rocco, on 20 April 2007, almost eight weeks prematurely. The children were christened on 15 July 2007 in the Saint Sylvester Roman Catholic Church in Malahide, County Dublin. Godparents for the children are Nicky's sister Gillian Byrne and her husband Mark Gallagher and Georgina's sister Cecelia Ahern and Nicky's brother Adam McGarry Byrne. 

  

Nicky with Georgina at a Newcastle United football game, 26 April 2002.

His first kiss : was when he was a wee rugrat of nine years old with his mum's friend's daughter! But then Nicky did have 'steady' girlfriends at that age - about one a month!
Fave one-liner: How do you like your eggs in the morning
Romantic move (eg. flowers): Surprised my girlfriend by coming home after being away for two months

Quotes

"I'll know I'm famous when my mum asks me for my autograph"

"The lads say that girls want to grab hold of my bum, but I think it's probably more my blue, twinkly eyes."
- Nicky on what girls fancy about him.

"I must have been about 17 and I was living in Leeds. My and three other lads from Dublin got chatting to these girls who asked us what we were doing in England. So we told them we were in a new Irish boy band called OTT cos it was around the time when OTT were just about to hit Britain. And they believed us! They asked us if we knew Boyzone and we pretended we did. They even asked us for our autographs! In a way though it wasn't so much of a lie, but a premonition cos three years later I am in an Irish boyband and I do know Boyzone!"

"It was at a party to celebrate our exam results and I must have been 15. Its one of those nights when everyone goes out and goes mad. I was at this nightclub called The Furnace in Dublin, which is actually closed down now, and I must of had about 11 snogs. I don't think it was any more than that!"

Classic by Adrian Gurvitz ...This song marks a special moment between me and my girlfriend, Georgina. Even though I'm too young to remember the track when it originally came out, it was a favourite of my dad's - Nicky senior - and I have memories of hearing it in the early 1980s. It's a ballad that I grew to love and more importantly it was the soundtrack to my first kiss with Georgina."
- Nicky on his favourite romantic song

"My fave place we've been on this tour so far has been Copenhagen in Denmark. It's a really great atmosphere there. But we've always got to get back on the bus..."

"At the very start of the band people from Ireland would travel our houses but now it's at the stage where you get people from Switzerland, everywhere, coming to the house...my mum was sitting to the house one time there was group of girls in a taxi with a video camera and they asked my mum if they could come in and take a picture of the house. They come from all over and they will take rose bushes out of our garden and stuff, it's crazy"
- on the fans

"We've been working so hard, we love it when we get a day off to go home to our families...and spending our time to go shopping... and i like to watch TV with my mum or eat my mum's cooking."
- what he does on his days off

"We come from normal families and £700 for a pair of trousers is a lot. If my mum asked, I'd probably say £450. Spending a lot on clothes or a watch or ring makes me feel guilty but I think that's a good thing. We appreciate what we've got."
- Nicky on his extravagant shopping sprees

"It's like an angel has come out of the sky and asked us five guys, 'What would you like to do with your lives?' The answer is Westlife."

Mark on Nicky: "He doesn't like anyone talking about his girlfriend"

"At school everyone would act really cool about how many Valentines cards they got, and you knew everyone exaggerated. I'd always say I got seven."

"If you wanted the world to stop turning you'd call Ronan!" - Nicky

Did You Know...?

When Nicky joined the band he couldn't swim!

His mum does all his washing

He speaks nicely when Georgina's parents are around (lol - and when they're not?!!)

Nicky reckons he could make a good racing driver

He used to live with footballer Alan Smith when he was training at Leeds Utd.

He broke his elbow at football training and still has a big scar

He wears 'lucky socks' to gigs

Nicky missed his first week of school, because he was in a road accident

He hated maths at school

He keeps a karaoke machine under his bed

He used to sing karaoke with his dad - who is also called Nicky - and who has a band called 'Nicky and the Studz'

Nicky bought a car when he signed to Westlife, but sold it cos he was never home

He once threw Bryan's boxer shorts out of a hotel window!

He would like a pet dog, if he had time to look after one.

He hates going to the gym

Nicky used to love dancing to 'Mickey' by Lolly

He always carries photos of his family with him

Nicky used to pray before every football match that he would play well, and it was him who started the Westlife tradition of praying and saying a Hail Mary before every concert!