LOVE STORY

Stephen has always been a very private person. In fact, a journalist once described Stephen as being someone we "knew everything but nothing about." So, on June 16th 1999, it came as a total surprise to learn that Stephen was gay with a long-term boyfriend. To the public, Stephen seemed to have it all- the talent, looks, money and glamorous lifestyle- but this was far from the truth. Stephen was, in fact, desperately unhappy. He'd fallen in love for the first time in his life and wanted to tell the fans. But he couldn't. He was conditioned to believe that his career would be over if people found out about his love for another man. But, when an ex-friend tried to sell the story, he realised that he was going to have to come clean. On the one hand, he was happy about doing so- him and his boyfriend would be free at last. But, he was also unhappy about his love life being made public- he'd never wanted his private life to be destined for the public arena.

We can trace Stephen's tale of unhappiness right back to when he was 15. It was at this age when he realised he was gay. Although he dated girls when he was younger, he knew they weren't what he wanted. It was an incredibly hard time for him and joining Boyzone simply made it worse. It's always been seen as being very hard to be openly gay in such a cynical industry. Being in a boy band, it was always expected that if band members were to have girlfriends or be openly gay, then the fans wouldn't accept it and, consequently, the boy band would fail.

Stephen was determined to be famous and didn't want anybody to judge him, which iis why he kept his sexuality a secret at first. But, as Boyzone started to really take off, he realised that it was going to prove impossible to keep it a secret forever. So, a year after joining the band, he finally told the members of Boyzone, their management as well as his sister and the rest of his family. Ronan, Shane, Keith and Mikey simply said, "so what?". His sister said, "I always thought you were" and his dad said, "don't worry son, we still love you". Stephen realised that everything was going to be okay- that is, until Boyzone really began to hit the big time. As Boyzone got bigger and bigger, more people were interested in their private lives. Although some newspapers knew Stephen was gay, they didn't print it because they thought he was such a nice guy and they also wanted to give him a chance in the music biz.

Of course, Stephen has many female celebrity friends and those people who were completely unaware of Stephen's secret, always presumed that he had a new girlfriend each time he was seen out with one of his friends. For example, Baby Spice Emma Bunton. Steve and Emma were spotted out on a few dinner dates and were immediately presumed to be a couple. Steve was quick to set the record straight, but it is a rumour that has haunted him ever since. Magazines and newspapers kept mentioning Emma in interviews hoping that he might give something away- all very embarrassing for Stephen of course. More embarrassing for Stephen was the story linking him to the model Mandy Smith in July 1998. It was actually Mandy who tried to sell a story about her and Steve for �20 000- she claimed that there were some "steamy revelations", which was completely fabricated of course.

As each member of Boyzone began to slowly settle down, Stephen was the only one left. He was seen as the one member who was very unlucky in love. The pressure was then piled on Stephen to get married- which obviously wasn't going to happen. He was the only one to remain conscpiciously single- it all looked very suspicious, to say the least. Of course, looking back now, there were so many signs. In an interview with Bliss magazine in 1996 when he was asked whether he had a girlfriend, he said, "No, but I have my eye on somebody. I'm not going to tell you who HE sorry, she, is but she's nice. She's in the business." His future boyfriend, perhaps?? The terminology used when talking about girls was also slightly strange. He never said "the girl", it was always "the person". And he always said "the partner" and NOT "the girlfriend". Slightly odd, some might say.

He was so frightened at being found out that he was very unwilling to get himself TOO involved with guys and also refused to go to gay clubs for fear of being seen. But, things got more confusing for him as of October 31st 1998. Boyzone were in Cologne, Germany, performing at the "Popcorn Live" Roadshow. Eloy de Jong, a member of the now defunct Dutch boy band Caught In The Act, was presenting the 8 hour spectatcular. But, Stephen felt strange. He suddenly realised that he was falling in love and the object of his affection was Eloy. He'd never felt like this before and didn't know what to do. But, these feelings of love were reciprocated- Eloy felt the same way and they plunged headfirst into a relationship with each other.

Eloy and Stephen had been friends for 3 years, meeting briefly whilst both BZ and CITA were promoting throughout Europe, and speaking properly at a showbiz party in London in 1995. They became great friends, speaking frequently on the phone to each other. But, the more they saw of each other, the more their feelings for each other grew. Their feelings of love had simply built up over the years and by the time of the Popcorn show, they were unable to ignore these feelings any longer. So, Stephen and Eloy were in love. They didn't see much of each other throughout November as Stephen was busy promoting Boyzone's latest single in the UK and Ireland. But, by December it became clear that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. Although, they were both happy, it was touched by sadness as they were unable to be seen together and weren't really able to enjoy the simple pleasure of going for a drink together. They wanted to be with each other all the time, but had to travel in separate cars and travel separately on aeroplane's. They even had to arrive separately at restaurants and book separate rooms at hotels. Despite this, they had moved in together in Amsterdam and even swapped gold commitment rings.

And then Stephen got the phone call that was to change the rest of his life forever- he was going to have to come out. Somebody was trying to out him.

And so we come to June 16th 1999- Stephen Gately is gay. Eloy is his boyfriend of 7 months. But, Stephen needn't have worried. Everybody supported him and this news meant that he was happier than anybody had ever seen him before. Stephen and Eloy were just carrying on with their lives, enjoying their new found freedom. They bought a Shih-Tzu puppy called Joey in July and even had each others name tattooed on their right arms, with an added chinese symbol meaning "happiness from within". Stephen certainly seems so happy now- everyone has noticed the change. He can't stop smiling and has put on some weight- but, DON'T WORRY!! This is a sign of contentment. It just shows how happy he is. If you look at the Boyzone Something Else video, you can just see how desperately unhappy and ill he looks. In fact, it doesn't look like him!! He looks so gaunt and thin. But now, he looks even better than ever and that's thanks to the fans and to Eloy- not many guys would have stuck by Stephen the way that he did.

Despite some jealous fans spreading nasty rumours that they'd split up, they are still together now and show no signs of splitting up. In fact, Stephen strongly believes that they will be together for life. Aaaaaah. . .