Ronan Keating is an Irishman who lives mostly in London, part-time in Dubai and travels the globe for his music career, but if he had to choose one favourite place?
It’d be Australia, the country his wife Storm is from and where their children, Cooper, eight, and Coco, five, could pass for local kids down at the beach!
“It’s a home away from home for me. I pine for Sydney when I’m not here, I really do,” Ronan tells Woman’s Day.
“My daughter’s got more of an Aussie accent, Cooper’s got quite a British accent but then he’s in school here and he goes to Nippers and I hear all the little Aussie-isms pop into his phrases.”
The lifestyle of Sydney’s Eastern suburbs is always a drawcard for the musician, 48, and his family, and a bonus perk to returning to The Voice panel after almost a decade away.
“We love being here, if we could spend more time here we would,” Ronan says.
“Nippers is brilliant, it was a really great father-son thing, and now Coco has just started in the Pirates, I think it’s called. I love every Sunday morning, down there early on the beach. It’s such
a nourishing, wholesome experience for the kids.”
‘MEL C’S LIKE FAMILY’
Beautiful location aside, Ronan would have signed on to this year’s Voice for the coach line-up alone.
After stints on the UK and German versions of the singing competition, he’s found himself pushing the red button alongside dear old friends Melanie C and Richard Marx, along with new friend, Kate Miller-Heidke.
“It’s been by far my favourite bunch of human beings to work with on any Voice anywhere in the world,” Ronan says.
“Mel’s like family, I’ve known Mel for 30 years, Richard 20 years – we wrote songs together and so on. Kate, I’ve just got to know her [but] she’s a legend.”
“I love the show, the format is just a lot of fun, but also I love how it protects the artists and really allows us to guide them.”
Of course, ’90s pop lovers will know Ronan and Melanie from their Boyzone and Spice Girls days, where they often crossed paths as their bands dominated the charts.
“We grew up together in the industry. I started in 1993, Spice Girls were ’95, and we spent a lot of time sharing the stage, you know, parties,” he recalls.
“It was a very different time. We were protected more because we didn’t have social media, but we were also in the dark… we weren’t exposed to what was in the press – we were travelling.”
LIFE ON TOUR
It’s been 25 years since Ronan’s first solo album was released, and he’s marking the milestone with a special anniversary edition for his fans.
“It feels like a minute ago that I was with the boys in the 90s,” he says. “I feel like I’m 18 all the time – forever young in my head and heart.”
He’s had to reflect a lot on that time in his life, after reliving the ups and downs of his boy band days for the documentary, Boyzone: No Matter What (Seven/7plus).
“It’s a hard watch. I’ve watched it 20 times, and every time I have another look, it brings it back to me what we went through,” he says.
“It’s not easy listening to other people talk about you in a negative way, but they’re truths and we all need to deal with them in our lives.”
Looking ahead, Ronan has a world tour planned out for 2026, and his family will be joining him “as much as possible” on the road.
“Storm and I have reevaluated and changed a lot in our lives because of stuff we’ve been through in the last couple of years that have been hard on the family, losing my brother…” he says.
“We just wanted to spend more time with each other and with the kids.”
