Stephen Gately’s tabloid outing and death addressed in trailer for Sky’s new Boyzone documentary 

A new Sky documentary entitled Boyzone: No Matter What will follow the rise and fall of the chart-topping noughties boyband Boyzone, including the tragic death of gay member Stephen Gately.

The three-part documentary series will explore how “conflict and rivalry, betrayal and tragedy” led to the five-piece band coming apart, despite their major success with hits including “Words” and “A Different Beat”.

All four living members of the band, Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch, and Michael Graham take part in the series, in addition to their estranged former manager and The X Factor judge Louis Walsh, with whom Boyzone had a very public falling out.

A new trailer confirms the series will also explore the impact of Gately being forced to come out as gay to the tabloid press in 1999, and his untimely death in 2009, aged 33.

“The invasion of the tabloids was damaging,” Duffy says in the trailer, describing the outing of Gately as “absolutely scandalous”.

In a distinctly different response, Louis Walsh is seen smiling as he says: “It got the front page.”

Gately came out as gay publicly in 1999, apparently telling The Sun newspaper that he was “gay and in love”.

While it initially looked as though Gately had decided to share his story with the world of his own accord, it later transpired that he was in essence forced to come out, as a former crew member had threatened to sell details of his sexuality to the media.

At the time, cruelly outing LGBTQ+ stars was part of the tabloid’s bread and butter, with George Michael being similarly hounded to reveal his sexuality just one year prior.

Ten years later, in October 2009, Gately died at his home in Mallorca, Spain, due to a pulmonary oedema caused by an undiagnosed heart condition.

In the documentary series’ trailer, Keating is seen in tears as he recalls learning that Gately had died.

“I called the guys and give them the news,” he says, as footage plays of the four members carrying their bandmates coffin at his funeral.

“No, no, no, not our Stephen,” Duffy adds.

At the time, the band released a statement saying that they were “completely devastated” by his death.

“We have shared such wonderful times together over the years and were all looking forward to sharing many more. Stephen was a beautiful person in both body and spirit. He lit up our lives and those of the many friends he had all over the world,” the statement read.

Their 2010 album Brother was named in memory of the late star.

A full synopsis for Boyzone: No Matter What promises that the series will “reveal the truth of what really happened” to the band before and after Gately’s death, including “the extraordinary highs of their meteoric rise to fame, and the huge costs that being in a boyband had on each of them”.

Boyzone: No Matter What is available on Sky Documentaries and streaming service NOW from Sunday 2 February.

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