Ronan Keating's ex-wife Yvonne discovered his affair with backing dancer with a clever move

Ronan Keating and his first wife Yvonne Connolly were about to turn a new page in their lives back in 2010. After a dozen years of marriage and three sprogs, they'd just shaken hands on selling their plush £3.5million home near Dublin . But, she would soon discover her loving husband was sleeping with a backing dancer .

But as Yvonne, 46, was gearing up for the big move, she chanced upon something that turned her world upside down .

Yvonne had reportedly felt a change between herself and her husband - whose brother died in a tragic car crash - and had her suspicions. Her fears seemed to be spot on when she found Ronan's phone bills with calls to a number she didn't recognize.

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Yvonne rang up the mystery digits and found out from the voicemail that it was Francine Cornell, then 26, a Boyzone backing dancer who was rumoured to have been secretly seeing Ronan for seven months.

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Francine has been quoted by The Sun saying: "She knew something was going on and she got hold of his phone records and called my number. From my voicemail she got my name - that's how she found out. Ronan tried to deny it all at first. He said I was a dancer from the tour and we were just good friends."

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But Yvonne wasn't having any of it and decided to have it out with Francine herself. Francine spilled the beans, saying their fling wasn't just a bit of fun; she'd and fallen for Ronan, and he'd apparently told her he loved her too, as reported by the Mirror .

However, just a few days later, he reportedly ended things with Francine to reunite with Yvonne, telling her over the phone that they had to cease all contact. Imagine the shock when, a month later, Yvonne asked Francine to meet at a London hotel.

"I just needed answers. I just needed the truth, and I needed to make sure stories collaborated," Yvonne revealed on Brendan O'Connor's Cutting Edge. "It was very hard to figure out who you can trust. So this was the answer to it. I was going to meet this girl, a quick 20-minute conversation, and we'd be done and dusted."

"And in fairness to her, she came and met me. But the 20-minute conversation turned into a couple of bottles of wine. After a few hours I realised she needed it as much as I did and I know it sounds very dramatic, but she was as much as a victim as I was. I think we both got something from it."

"When I look back, this is what it all boils down to: it was basically two girls in love with the same boy who over a five-hour conversation realised that that boy was not who we thought he was."

The drama took an unexpected turn when police arrived at the hotel following a concerned call from Francine's mum - though Yvonne initially mistook them for strippers.

Ex-model Yvonne recalled: "There was a knock on the door and I looked out through the peephole and I saw people dressed as policemen. I said to them, 'Tell me you're strippers', to which I was told, 'No we're the Metropolitan Police and we've come to investigate the whereabouts of this girl.'" She laughed, "To this day, it's like that happened to somebody else, I just think it's the funniest story."

After the incident, Ronan and Yvonne did eventually move into their new home, trying hard for a year to repair their marriage. In a heartfelt confession on his 2010 solo album Duet, Ronan made use of the sleeve notes to send an apologetic message to his spouse, whom he had wed in their early twenties.

"You are the most incredible, inspirational woman I have ever met," he wrote.

"For the mistakes I have made in my life, I am sorry. Guess you have to go there to come back. It was a dark place and you were the light to bring me back. I love you."

Despite their efforts, Ronan and Yvonne ultimately announced their split in April 2012. Life went on for both, with Yvonne finding love with cinematographer John Conroy, while Ronan connected with TV producer Storm Uechtritz, who he met on The X Factor Australia.

In a beautiful Scottish ceremony in 2015, Ronan and Storm tied the knot and have since been blessed with two adorable children, Cooper, seven, and Coco, four.