" When Nicholas turned 3, we re- released 'We Are One'. How come? Well, actually, the idea came up when one of the Westlife producers over heard me practising something together with her. It was quite common that we did like that, I needed to warm up my voice before going on stage and I used to run through songs I had difficulty remembering and whatever, and she used to take over parts I didn't sing. He just came in after the song, I can't even remember what it was right now, and he was like "your voices are fantastic together, you really should do a duet." We put it off for a while, but for our 5th anniversary we decided to release something to honour the fans that had stuck with us throughout our relationship. 'We Are One' were actually Nikki's choice, because she said that from the very first time she heard that, she had always, always wanted to duet it with me, and after all, I think it was a great choice!

" I think she got a lot off attention after that as well. Ever since we went public, she did get a lot off coverage though. I think there was just something about her, she had a potential, and she could have gotten really, really far if she'd lived out to it. But it wasn't her wish, and I didn't want to push her into something she didn't want to do.

"It wasn't actually long after she became sick. I think it all started when she was pregnant with Nicholas the time she got rushed into hospital with the flu, well, a major flu it was. No one could tell what it was, but the doctor said it wasn't anything serious, so we stopped worrying. She got some prescription and it seemed to work, so we just stopped thinking about it.

"However, it was more serious than anyone thought. It took 10 years, but she did fade away. She was very sick, but still no one could tell what was wrong. Actually, to date I still do not know what killed her. No one knows, and it's too late for anyone to know now. It's weird, it makes it even harder to believe that something that was so precious to me, could be taken away just like that. By something no one even could detect. That's why it was that sudden, it was just like, one minute she was there, the next, she wasn't. If I had at least known she was seriously ill, I would have had time to get used to it. But she looked completely healthy.

"Her death was sudden, very sudden. It was quite tragic actually. I had taken a few days off, the kids, who by then were 15 and 12 years old, were off to summer camps, we looked forward to a week together. We never got to spend that week together though.

"I think the creepiest thing about it was that she was lying singing the old Westlife song, 'Moments' in my lap, on the living room coach. God knows why she was singing it, but for some reason she only got as far as the line 'but if I make it through' then she just sighted and stopped. I thought she fell asleep and it wasn't until, 5 minutes later or something I realised she was dead. It was so creepy, I just didn't know what to do. Of course, all I could do at the time was to cry. Luckily enough, my dad came by then, otherwise I'd probably still have been sitting the crying! I couldn't believe it, 10 minutes earlier she been singing and now, she was gone, forever. I can say it took ages to get over her death, in fact I haven't gotten over it. She looked forward to watching her kids grow up, have grandchildren, all those things you want in life. Unfortunately, she never lived to watch it.

"Her death hit both Mae and Nick hard as well. It was probably the worst for Mae, she was 15, in the middle of her teenage years and she needed someone to talk to. I was just, wrong. no way I could understand her point of view. That's basically why I decided to quit my career and spend time with the kids I had never really got to know probably.

"I think everyone around us were shocked by her death as well. At least if all the coverage on news, in papers, in magazines, all over the world. The news spread very fast and I had loads of sympathy letters from so many people. I could never read them all, but I just want to say thank you so much for everyone that sent letter, and everyone that sent letter on the wedding day, and when the kids were born and all those times people have been there for us. It meant very much both to me, Nikki and the rest of our family. THANK YOU."