Boyzone star Mikey Graham has revealed how he has found true happiness with the new lady in his life, dancer Karen Corradi.
The stunning English-Italian gorl, who performs on stage with Boyzone, has become his constant companion since he ended his engagement to long-time girlfriend Sharon Keane.
Talking with Mikey, it's obvious that he's besotted with Londoner Karen, who was back on stage with the Boyz this week when they launched their new tour, By Request, in the UK.
"Karen is beautiful," he told the Sunday World, with obvious pride. "And we have so much in common. We're in the same business, we like the same music, the same style in clothes, we share the same star sign and our birthdays are only two days apart. The fact that Karen is touring with us obviously makes it easier on the relationship. The great thing about it is that she understands the business. She's a great friend, she's like my best pal."
The couple began dating shortly after Mikey split with Sharon, who is the mother of Hannah, the little daughter he dotes on.
He says: "Breaking up is never easy, but I realised before last Christmas that my realtionship with Sharon was one sided and that she didn't love me. I needed support when my mother was sick and I didn't get it. I knew then we couldn't spend the rest of our lives together. I worked hard to make the relationship last, but it didn't work out. Things are amicable between Sharon and myself now and our main concern is for the happiness of our daughter Hannah."
Mikey told how he had been friends with Karen for "a long time" but they only started dating a month after the last Boyzone tour ended in Dublin at Christmas.
"After the last Boyzone tour, we started going out to dinner and things
like that and it developed from there," he says.
Mikey is now gearing up to launch his solo career, even though he says
Boyzone will NEVER break up.
He revealed: "I don't think we will call it a day, in all honesty. >From a
business point of view, it would be a ludicrous thing to do because Boyzone is a company that makes a lot of money for us. It would be silly to give it all up for no reason. I think we will occasionally take a break from Boyzone and go and do our solo projects. We still have a lot to offer Boyzone, but there is a lot of stuff we have to do as individauls and that's why we want to do other things away from the group. Then we'll come back fresh and crank up the Boyzone machine again, take it out on the road and enjoy it all the more. I hope to have a solo album recorded by the end of next year and I'l be doing shows in Dublin and London, as well as working with Boyzone. Until now, people haven't been aware that there is another side to me. My songs are written and they are totally different to what we're doing in Boyzone. They're more pop rock, a lot deeper and they'll appeal to an older audience. And I'll be out there playing my guitar as well."
added on 23 Mar 2008 by Keety