Westlife singer Mark Feehily has said that the late Stephen Gately was incredibly brave and admitted that his coming out. helped other gay men come to terms with their own sexuality.

Feehily told The Daily Mail: “He was extremely brave. He was the first member of a boyband to come out and in hindsight it helped me and probably lots of other gay lads understand their sexuality and come out.

“There is a cliché about gays and every time a celebrity who is admired by millions of people comes out it is one more blow to the negative cliché, and people understand there is not a whole lot of difference between gay people and themselves.”

Of the funeral, he added: “In the middle of the church there was a picture of Stephen smiling and it made me think about his friendly nature and how everywhere we saw him he always had the same little smile for you.

‘Everyone was saying the same thing that day – that they couldn’t believe it is true. It is so strange, it still hasn’t sunk in.”