What happened to Boyzone's Stephen Gately?

Sky's new documentary Boyzone: No Matter What explores the experience of the Ninties boyband, including the sudden death of lead singer Stephen Gately.

UNSPECIFIED - CIRCA 2000:  Photo of Stephen GATELY and BOYZONE; Stephen Gately  (Photo by Simon Ritter/Redferns)
Boyzone band member Stephen Gately pictured in 2000, the singer's life and legacy is shared in Sky documentary Boyzone: No Matter What. (Redferns)

Boyzone are looking back at their life and career for Sky's new documentary Boyzone: No Matter What, including the legacy of their late band member Stephen Gately.

The band debuted in 1993 with Gately, Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch and Mikey Graham, and they went on to become one of the largest boybands in the world. Gately died suddenly in 2009 at the age of 33, and the documentary explores what happened after his death.

For those curious to learn more about the late singer, here is what you need to know.

Irish boy band Boyzone, circa 1995. (Photo by Tim Roney/Getty Images)
Irish boy band Boyzone pictured in 1995, Stephen Gately was co-lead singer alongside Ronan Keating and the group was completed by Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch, and Mikey Graham. (Getty Images)

Gately rose to fame as a member of Boyzone, the band were created by then-manager Louis Walsh to create Ireland's answer to UK boyband Take That. The group went on to have a prolific career after their breakout single Love Me For a Reason in 1995 catapulted them to global acclaim.

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The group are the second most successful boyband in the British music industry, coming second only to Take That. Gately was lead vocalist for the group alongside Keating. When the band split in 1999 the singer embarked on a solo music career and began to work in theatre, taking the lead role in Andrew Lloyd-Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat in 2003.

DUBLIN, IRELAND - APRIL 20:  Stephen Gately (R) and boyfriend Andy Cowles attend the Boyzone Reunion at Palmerstown stud golf club April 20, 2004 in Dublin Ireland. The boys met up at Citywest Hotel to officially launch the 3rd annual celebrity golf classic in aid of the Irish Autism Alliance. (Photo by ShowBizIreland/Getty Images)
Stephen Gately came out as gay in 1999, he married Andy Cowles (left) in a civil ceremony in 2006. (Getty Images)

Gately was gay but kept his sexuality private when the band first debuted, he came out publicly in 1999 after learning that an acquaintance planned to sell stories about his sexuality to the tabloids. He later began dating Andrew Cowles, whom he had been introduced to by Elton John and David Furnish, and the pair married in a civil ceremony in 2006.

Gately died in Mallorca, Spain, in October 2009 at his home that he shared with Cowles, he died from a pulmonary oedema caused by an undiagnosed congenital heart defect.

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After his death became public, and before the cause was known, there was a lot of press intrusion into what happened to Gately and why he died so suddenly. The surviving members of Boyzone speak in the documentary of how difficult this period was, sharing that the speculation was not only completely inaccurate but harmful.

DUBLIN, IRELAND - JUNE 28: (NO IRISH TABLOIDS)  Shane Lynch, Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating, Stephen Gately and Keith Duffy of Boyzone perform at the RDS on June 28, 2008 in Dublin, Ireland.  (Photo by Phillip Massey/FilmMagic)
Boyzone are pictured together in 2008, Stephen Gately died in October 2009 and the group's new documentary acts as a celebration of him. (FilmMagic)

Keating told Yahoo UK that Boyzone: No Matter What has allowed the band to tell Gately's story in the right way, and to preserve his legacy for decades to come.

"This is his legacy, this is his story," Keating shared. "It's incredible, it's heartbreaking that he's not here, he's obviously part of it but he's not here to celebrate it. He, at 33 years of age, had just found [himself], he'd become comfortable in his own skin and he was a bright shining star.

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"He was ready to take on anything and that's the injustice of it all. It's very tough, so to celebrate his life and for everybody to see that, the character that he truly was, is beautiful to watch."

Boyzone: No Matter What premieres on Sky Documentaries and NOW on Sunday, 2 February.