Stephen Gately

I had the BBC News on this morning in the absence of Match of the Day, as I woke up a little later than normal and wasn't really listening while mooching around making coffee when I heard the paper review and Stephen Gately had died.

I couldn't believe it, he was way too young, exactly how I felt last year when I was told of Neil Trafford's tragic death last year.

I then sat and listened and it appears that after a night in Majorca where Stephen and his partner Andrew were on holiday, they returned home and he never woke up this morning.

He was only 33, although he had lived an exciting life, he was born in Dublin in March 1976 and as everyone knows was a member of the very successful boy band, Boyzone. All of their albums hit the number one spot as did six singles and after the band split in 2000, although this was an amicable split unlike their counterparts in Take That, Stephen went solo and had a top ten album and he then went onto star on stage as Joseph which I think he did amazingly well.

Stephen had a really varied career including commentating on Match of the Day for an Ireland game - that is something I had really forgotten.

Stephen's top 3 hit, New Beginning was used by the Liberal Democrats in the 2001 General Election campaign. I still have the copy, and of course all of the Boyzone albums and singles!

Only last year Boyzone reformed and have been a hit again since. They released a new single "Love You Anyway" and then a compilation album in October last year. Then in December 2008 they released a second single called "Better", the accompanying video generated a lot of controversy because it showed a lot of romantic couples including two men embracing, it was condemned by many including the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

In 1999, just ten years ago Stephen came out, but on the front page of The Sun, it was rumoured that a former member of the band's security firm was going to out him, so he went first as it were. Stephen was aged just 23 at this point and also admitted that he had been in a relationship since 1998 with Eloy de Jong, who was a member of a Dutch boy band, Caught in the Act.

Stephen and Eloy split up in 2002 and through mutual friends Elton John and David Furnish he then met Andrew Cowles who Stephen went on and had a civil partnership with in London in 2006.

I cannot begin to imagine what Andrew is going through now and I couldn't begin to imagine life without Roger in the same way.

It is always a tragedy when anyone dies, but when it is young it makes it so much harder to deal with, Stephen was just 33 and still had so much of his life ahead of him, our thoughts are with Andrew, the band and his family at this awful time.