VIP Interview: "We'll always be great friends"
Georgina, Gillian and Kerry in their first exclusive interview together.(HUGE THANKS TO CHELLE FOR TYPING THIS ALL UP! (C) VIP magazine)
How did you meet your husbands?
Georgina: Nicky and I met in transition year in school when we were 15.
Gillian: Shane and I met when we were about 10. We started going out when we were 12, for about 6 weeks. Then about 7 years ago, we were doing the musical Grease and we started going out shortly afterwards.
Kerry: We met when we were six, we were pen pals. No seriously, I was in Atomic Kitten doing a gig and he was in Westlife and he asked me out, I thought he was great and he proposed three weeks later!
Gillian: I remember when you met, Bryan kept saying to us 'You have to see her, she's gorgeous!'
What were your first impressions of your husband, in three words?
Georgina: Really good looking, really cute, really friendly and really fun loving.
Gillian: Really cute, caring and considerate.
Kerry: Genuine, funny and loving.
Georgina and Gillian, you knew Nicky and Shane before they were in Westlife, were you surprised when they formed a boyband?
Georgina: We were very positive and encouraging, but you could never have imagined it would be this big.
Gillian: It was kind of blurry in the start, I never remember thinking this is really big, it's hard to see it from the inside.
It must have been exciting as the band got more famous, but were you anxious also?
Georgina: I don't think you can see anyone that's so close to you as a celebrity. The word doesn't mean anything to you. There's no anxiety in that way, it's just as they got more famous, they were away more, that was difficult.
How did you deal with them being away for so long?
Gillian: The longest they've been away is 5 weeks, when they toured Asia, Georgina and I were doing exams so couldn't go with them. I remember when we we're meeting them in Spain, we hadn't seen them in a while. Kerry was pregnant and had really begun to show, Bryan hadn't seen her in a while, and we went throught the arrivals gate first and we were warning him 'Bryan she's massive!!'
Kerry: *laughs* I was so nervous, because he hadn't seen me in a while, I was waiting for my bag and couldn't go into the arrivals, Bryan was on the mobile saying "Just come to the door and let me have a look" I walked to the door and he looked so shocked and shouted "OH MY GOD!" I ran back and wouldnt come out!
As a boyband, Westlife have many female fans, have any of them been jealous or nasty to you?
Georgina: When they weren't known it was exciting to see the support, and that they were getting known. If they're saying anything about me, they never say it to my face.
Gillian: Most of the fans are really good, I've yet to come across a bad fan.
Kerry: Because I was in Atomic Kitten and going out with a guy in Westlife I had some bad experiences. Some fans feel the guys belong to them, and you're taking them away. I remember being in a club, and someone threw a bottle at me.
Georgina: I've never had that..
If you read a story in the press that you know isn't true, how do you deal with it?
Gillian: They're very supportive, but once he tells you it's not true and that he loves you, that's the bottom line. There's no reason to get upset then, because they'll tell you the truth and thats the most important thing.
Georgina: You read so many things that you know arent true, so it doesn't touch us.
You are all in your 20s, and have done so much - will your 30's be an anti-climax?
Gillian: The way I see it is, I want to travel in my 20s, then in my 30's settle down and have a family.
Georgina: We've just got married, we've got our careers ahead of us, so there's still lots left to do, I've spent a lot of time travelling with Nicky, but now that I've got my business degree, I'm going to put it to good use.
Gillian: After I finished my business management degree, I spent a year travelling with Shane, then I was planning the wedding, so now it's down to full time working. I have a Morgan shop with Shane in Sligo and Galway, I love clothes and I travel with Shane's sister, Mairead, who runs them,to do all the buys. So now its really about focussing on that.
Kerry: God knows what I'll be doing - Hopefully I'll still be married, and the kids will be able to clean there own rooms rather than me doing it for them. I'm 23 and have done everything. I've been in foster homes, refuge houses, travelled the world, been a celebrity, and I've met all kinds of people, the prime misniter one day, a rock star the next, nothing phases me.
How do you feel about Bryan leaving Westlife?
Kerry: Whatever makes him happy, Im happy, He wants to spend more time with his family and kids and thats fantastic.
As girlfriends of band members what were your first impressions of one another?
Kerry: Well I think it's fair to say out of the three of us, I'm definitely the wildest!
Georgina and Gillian: Absolutely!
Georgina: We all met in the Red Box, after a Childline concert, I thought Kerry was good fun and always very friendly, she's honest and not two faced, and that's good! Gillian is an absolute sweetheart and she's always there for me, we're always on the phone chatting together.
Will your friendship survive Bryan leaving Westlife?
Kerry: I'll be dead honest with you, because of the kids and because I work alot, I don't see the girls as often. Whats brilliant is I know I can depend on the girls even when I haven't seen them for ages.
Gillian: We have the kind of friendship that if we didn't see each other for five months, we'd still have a great laugh and a giggle.
Whats your favourite Westlife song thenL
Georgina: Mine are If I Let You Go, Flying Without Wings and When You're Looking Like That.
Gillian: Oh that's mine too!- If I Let You Go - and also Written In The Stars.
Kerry: Yeah, Written In The Stars, because of the words, it's real romantic, make love to song.
What about your other interests?
Georgina: I love working out in the Gym, exercising, and I've got into taeboe and walking our dog Keano.
Gillian: She does everything, she's so fit and healthy, I like shopping, and more shopping, partying and dancing. I do like exercise too.. but I don't do it!
Kerry: I like to watch people exercise!
Georgina and Gillian you were both married in the last year,what is the one thing you remember about your wedding day?
Gillian: For me it was right after the priest said 'I now pronounce you man and wife' and we kissed, Shane just burst into tears, and that got me crying, so then the whole church started crying!
Georgina: For me it was the ceremony, that's the emotional part, because it's all about me and Nicky. The singing too, cathy Vard is so good, it gave me the shivers. We both had tears in our eyes.
In different ways you both had negitive publicity surrounding your wedding day, did that spoil things for you?
Georgina: It didn't spoil it, because I was on such a high and having such a good time. I had so much to look foward to. But it deffinitely added to the stress on our family and upset them. We chose to do something for a magazine, and obviously its going to attract attention, you just have to take the good with the bad.
Gillian: I don't think there was anything negitive about our actual wedding day. However the Northwest Hospice did give out information without our knowledge, which caused upset not only to Shane and I, but to our family and friends. I did receive loads of cards and presents from people I dont know, which I greatly appreciate!
Would you do anything different?
Gillian:No, because the NWH is based in Sligo and we want to give something back to the town Shane and I call home.
Georgina: No, because we got to bring our families over to France for a holiday aswell as a wedding. So no, we had too much fun!
Whats the best aspect of marriage?
Gillian: I think it brings you an awful lot closer, I definitely feel a lot closer to Shane now, than I have in the past few years. I didn't think I'd feel like this. But we've been inseparable since we got married, where as before we use to go and do our own things and that would be fine. It's just great.
Georgina: We've being getting on incredibly well, it's the icing on the cake.
Kerry: To be with your best friend, who you can tell everything to is brilliant, I'm straight onto Bryan saying 'You'll never believe this..' and he's the same. We are literally best friends.
Gillian: You're looking foward to something for so long, and it turns out to be better than you ever expected!
Would you like to start a family immediately or wait a while?
Georgina: I'd like to concentrate on my career first, but in saying that, if I had a child tomorrow,we'd be delighted because its the plan someday!
Gillian: I'd like to put it off for a few years. I'm not ready yet.
Georgina: Yeah but I want to be a young mum too.
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