According to his entrepreneur widower Andrew Cowles, the late pop star Stephen Gately was so paranoid about the press 'outing' him as a homosexual, he would scour the British tabloids for tell-all stories in the early hours of the morning.

The Boyzone star shocked his female fanbase by revealing he was gay in 1999. He was forced to make the announcement after hearing a former member of the band's security was allegedly set to sell the story.

"Stephen was a very private person," insists Cowles. "It was very difficult having to lie for the first years of his career. At his low point he would go out at 2am to buy the papers - scouring the tabloids in the middle of the night to see if anyone knew about him. Living under that kind of fear - it was wrong he had to do that. When he came out, it was a major step, it didn't matter that someone was going to sell the story, he came out with real dignity.

Gately died suddenly in Majorca, Spain in October last year in 2009.