Nicky Byrne has revealed he suffered from cripplingly low self-esteem in his boyband days due to Louis Walsh mocking his teeth.
The former Westlife star admitted the pop guru’s jibes got to him and eventually made him get braces to improve his appearance.
While the 36-year-old tried not to care about his appearance – being in the public eye forced him to be self-conscious.
Mouthful: Nicky wasn’t always blessed with pearly whites | VIPIRELAND.COM
“It’s a very blokey thing to not be concerned about your appearance, but I think we all care deep down,” he said.
“You’re in a boyband, you’re going to be vain. But I remember the early days…my teeth were all over the place.”
“Louis used to always say to me, ‘You’ve got to get your teeth done, you’ve got to get your teeth done,'” he told Good Morning Britain.
Manager: Louis told Nicky he had to do something about his teeth
“I suppose that resonated with me then and I went and got a brace.”
Nicky divulged that seeing himself on TV and on the covers of magazines didn’t help in improving his self-image.
“In those kind of crazy Westlife years, it is something that you can’t avoid,” he said.
Fame: Nicky became self-conscious after seeing his face everywhere
“You see yourself everywhere on magazine covers, on TV regularly and then you know you kind of think, ‘I need to do that, I need to change, I need to train a little bit.”
While he may have found the pressure to look good in Westlife difficult, Nicky previously told Goss.ie he would “never say never” to a reunion.
