Most of the story are parts of Ronan Keating's boook "Life Is A Rollercoaster", his autobiography. It's out in the shops since 2000.
Wivvy and Ronan
Anytime in summer 1990, a little girl with pig-tails in her hair were leaning against the wall outside a vilage shop. Suddenly, she discovered a little cute blond boy in front of a truck, that were waiting in front of the shop. She glanced at him, smiled and couldn't avoid her braces all over her teeth.
His dad came back, telling him what he had to do and a few seconds later the boy was down of he truck and went in the direction of the shop. Much to her delight, he passes her way. The girl smiled again, he definitely seemed attracted for her. "Hi", he said, trying to look laid back as you can when caring two crates of fizzy orange. As he came back, the little girl already talked to that boy's dad. On their way home his dad told him about his girl.
A week later, the boy had ended up in hospital from headaches and nausea and was missing going out in the van again. As his dad arrived home one evening, he annouced that "good lookin' little blondie" was asking for Ronan today. But he didn't go back to that particular shop again, so he'd nearly forgot about that girl.
The years went by and little Ronan grew up, becoming a famous Boyzone star. He used to go to the chocolate bar and the POD nightclub in Dublin now. He loved to meet friends there. One day, he was in the chocolate bar again, a model friend of him introduced him to another model called Yvonne Connolly. They got on well with each other, they had a great laugh.
One evening in summer 1997, Ronan and his friends including Yvonne were driving towards her house, passing the shop where Ronan was used to help his father to deliver drinks. He told his friends about these times and first Yvonne couldn't really believe it. After a while, both remember the day where they first met. It was such a surprise that they already bumped into..
After that happening, Ronan saw Yvonne in a different way. He started to think of her all day long and finally fell in love.
"She was glamorous, beautiful, wonderful to talk to (and had this fantastic laugh) but she was also a very laid back and confident person. She always has a calm air about her and she is the best person to have around in a crisis. Whatever happens Yvonne gets on with life in a quiet way, without any drama." Hey, Ronan calm down again, we know how perfect she is.
One night the gang of them were in the POD again. Ronan tried to sit next to Yvonne and drunk loads of Jack Daniel's and Coke to finally tell her he's in love. Eventually, he was ready and the only sentence he brought himself to say was "There's someone here I'm in love with." and added after a while "It's you". It seemed that hours passed away before Yvonne said what's on her mind. She simply said: "I feel the same way."
"Part of our relationship became so strong, so quickly, is that we were friends first. Before there were any emotional involvement we were first and foremost great mates...Yvonne is the first woman I've ever loved...I'm so glad she came into my life before my mom died. They met and got on well. Mam said she thought Yvonne was a lovely girl, which meant a lot to me... After Mam's death Yvonne was my rock. I don't know how I would have survived if she hadn't been there for me. She couldn't take the pain away, but she went through it with me and supported me all day."
At his 21st birthday (March 1998), their relationship went partly on public though they never really tried to hide it. Some speculations were if Yvonne is his new girlfriend. After it was official, fans came around and congratulated Ronan and Yvonne. The even told her, when they met her in Dublin's city that they are glad Ronan found someone who was there as his Mam died. Anyway, there were some fans who couldn't stand her. They were jealous of her and trying to find faults on her.
"I don't know if it can be explained, but when the right person, your soulmate, comes along you instinctively know it. Sometimes people let pass it by and sometimes they grab on to it. I'm glad I grabbed on to it. It was the best thing I ever did."
He didn't even hesitate that long to propose to her. It was early April 1998 as he popped the question. He even did it in the traditional way, kneeling down in front of his girl. "'Will you marry me?'. She burst out laughing and said, 'Would ya feck off!' My face fell and she suddenly realized that I was serious. 'Yes! Yes! Yes! she laughed."
In late April, the booked a holiday and flew to the tiny Caribbean island of Nevis. On 30 April, they became man and wife. Actually, it wasn't planned but they though it was righ after seeing these landscape. No one else knew about it. Only Gar, Ronan's brother, was there to be the witness to this marriage.
"The moment when Yvonne said yes to taking me as her husband was extraordinary. My heart seemd to leap, and I felt a great surge of love, gratitude and hapiness. There wasn't one niggling doupt that I made the right decision."