Daily Record, 13th April 2000
thanks very much to Lucy Witts for this article!!!
Bryan's conquests aren't all true. Here he puts the record straight on the women in his life
HE was the fat kid at school dubbed "ugly" by cruel classmates, but Westlife hunk Bryan McFadden is having the last laugh.
A string of the showbiz world's most attractive women have been linked with the 19-year-old pop singer.
Bryan, whose group entered the Guinness Book of Records by scoring their fifth consecutive Number One with Fool Again last week, says he fears Westlife fans are being turned off by rumours of his serial romances.
Bryan has seen his popularity soar since teaming up with Kian Egan, Shane Filan, Mark Feehily and Nicky Byrne as Westlife just two years ago.
The star has been linked to famous pop beauties including Danish dish Lene Nystrom of Aqua, Atomic Kitten singer Kerry Katona and Hepburn's Jamie Benson. But Bryan revealed:"Believe it or not, my first kiss came two years ago.
"At school I was always called ugly because I was overweight. A girl wouldn't look at me twice.
But then I hit 17, I was taller and leaner and found it easier to chat up girls."
And he says Lene Nystrom,best known for Aqua hits such as Barbie Girl and Dr. Jones, was among the first to seduce him.
Because she was an older woman, he found her experience too hot to handle. He said:"It didn't work out. It was like a scene from The Graduate.
The age difference got in the way. "She's 27 and I'm only 19, so that was a bit much.
Lene and I met at an awards ceremony in Norway and really hit it off. From that day everything seemed to happen very quickly for both of us and we started dating immediately afterwards.
"She's allright, but I wouldn't get into that again. Let's just say she was too hot and too demanding.
"While the thing I had with Lene was real, lots of the other stories just made me look like a real gigolo.
"The moment Swear It Again charted, the stories about my love life started to appear.
"First, I was linked with Angela Griffiths from Coronation Street. It's true that we were both at the same party but we didn't snog and I haven't spoken to her since.
"I was also supposed to be going out with an Irish singer called Kerri-Ann - back home radio stations were announcing that I was getting married to her. I grew up with Kerri-Ann so she's like a sister to me. I've known her since she was five years old.
"Then there was a thing about the girl from the group Fierce, who I'd met just once. I said "hello" and shook hands with her and suddenly we were dating.
"I went out for a drink with Jamie from Hepburn and her boyfriend. Next day , the papers were full of how I was seeing her and there was something going on between me and Jamie.
"After that, I was supposedly going out with Hannah from S Club 7, which is mad because I'm really good friends with Hannah and boyfriend Bradley."
But he denies a fling with Irish model Joyce Murphy. The 21-year old claimed she ended up spending the night with Bryan after bumping into him backstage at the Miss Ireland beauty pageant in Dublin.
He said: "Now that's one affair I would have loved to have been able to confirm. I would have been a real hero if I was dating her."
One love he will admit to is Kerry Katona of pop trio Atomic Kitten. Both have decided to "cool off in order to concentrate on their pop careers" but another reason might be that all members of Westlife were forced by co-managers, Ronan Keating and Louis Walsh, to agree to a verbal contract that they wouldn't wed or date girls