WESTWIFE: Jodi Albert met pop star Kian Egan at 15, even then she knew she would be King Kian’s Queen

It was the moment that was pivotal in deciding the winner of last year’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!. Unlike previous years, when the contestants who showed the most strength in the Bushtucker trials became king or queen of the jungle, this year it was a display of vulnerability that helped Kian Egan secure the crown.

Having won a night in a luxury hotel away from the jungle camp, Kian shouted in surprise when he spotted a familiar figure across the pool.’Oh my God, I don’t believe it,’ he said, as a woman walked towards him, a wide smile on her face.
rexfeatures_804106oRushing to embrace the pretty brunette, an overcome Kian sobbed into her shoulder. ‘I can’t believe it, I love you so much,’ he said, before pulling her close for a passionate kiss.
As the couple melted into another heartfelt embrace, millions of viewers had their own hearts melted by the genuine display of affection from a young couple deeply in love.
Unbeknownst to Kian he had just deployed the secret weapon that would win him the competition – his wife of four years, Jodi Albert.
This week Kian was somewhat less gushing when asked about how much he’d missed Jodi when he was in the jungle. ‘I was a bit of a wuss,’ was all he would somewhat bashfully admit when talking to Terry Wogan on BBC Radio 2. However, it was clear that he hadn’t forgotten the weight that his ‘dear wife’ can lend to brand Egan.
The former Westlife star was appearing on the Weekend Wogan show to talk about the launch of his solo album, Home, with which his wife also helped him out.
Persuaded by Warner Music to record it when he returned from the jungle, the album is a collection of covers of Kian’s favourite songs from recent years. Though he admitted that they never wanted to be as ‘cheesy’ as to sing together in the past, Jodi duets with him on a cover of Lady Antebellum’s I Run To You.

‘We never thought about singing together at all,’ Jodi told Terry Wogan. ‘A lot of people asked us and we thought, “No, no, we won’t be doing that”. He (Kian) sprung it on me at the last minute. He told me the album was going to be finished in three days and he needed me to go into the studio. I love the song.’
Facing each other across the studio, the couple performed the song live on the show. ‘When it all starts becoming undone, baby you’re the only one, I run to you,’ they sang to each other, as Jodi’s soulful voice soared above her husband’s more gravelly tones. No doubt it will melt the same hearts who were captivated by their jungle love story.

So now that she’s queen to Kian’s king – both on screen and in the studio – just who is Jodi Albert? On television, Jodi may have come across as a quiet and dutiful wife, but I can reveal that she’s far from a shrinking violet. Having met her many times, I would describe 30-year-old Jodi as being feisty, strongwilled and opinionated, without being rude. She is well-read and quick to stand up to her husband, who is also not shy of an opinion.
I can see why they work so well together – Kian needs a strong woman to tell him the truth.
Born to Eileen and George Albert in London in July 1983, Jodi trained at the acclaimed Sylvia Young Theatre School, where she was a classmate of Billie Piper. By the time she was 15, Jodi was picked to join an all girl band, conceived by Simon Cowell, called Girl Thing.
From the beginning, Jodi proved she was willing to work hard for the success she craved. Still a teenager, she left home to tour with the band.

Touted as the new Spice Girls, Girl Thing went to No.8 in the British charts in 2000 with their debut single Last One Standing. But their second single, Girls On Top, only managed to scrape it to No.25 and their next record, Pure And Simple, was handed over to Hear’Say when the girls were dumped by their label, BMG.
In 2002, Jodi showed off her acting chops by joining the cast of Hollyoaks on Channel 4, playing Debbie Dean. She left the soap in 2005, but returned for guest appearances later that year – when she won the British Soap Award for Sexiest Female – and in 2006. By that stage, she was already in a relationship with Kian, the man of her dreams, whom she had met during her pop-star days.
Kian wisely realised that at 15 years I was far too young,’ Jodi said of her first meeting with her future husband. ‘Simon Cowell introduced us at the Party In The Park in 1999. Kian (then 18) was like this pop star teenager. I had seen a picture of the band and my eye had gone straight to Kian, but even at that age I was very proud and determined. When I met him, I wasn’t going to show it. They all walked in and Simon introduced them, and as soon as I saw him, I got all embarrassed, and after saying hello, turned on my heel and walked off. Over the years we bumped into each other at various gigs. Somehow we both knew that we’d end up together. We eventually ended up together when I was 19.’

The pair officially began dating in 2003, and it was at Nicky Byrne and Georgina Ahern’s wedding in August of that year that their relationship hit the headlines.
While the bride was shielded from public view as part of a deal with Hello! magazine, Jodi provided the press with the picture of the day. Wearing a candy-pink minidress, she indulged in a passionate kiss with her new boyfriend, much to the delight of the waiting photographers. While cynics questioned the motives of a young starlet latching on to one of the most famous pop stars in the world, close friends at the time insisted that this was a couple caught up in the first flush of true love.
Given their performance in the jungle, it would seem that this romance is still in full bloom.
rexfeatures_522139cwAfter six years together, Kian and Jodi were married in a beach ceremony in Barbados in May 2009. Kian’s father, Kevin, was suffering from cancer and was too ill to attend the wedding. When he passed away in July that year, Jodi was a huge support for her devastated husband. ‘It was an extremely low point for Kian,’ a close friend of the couple revealed. ‘Kian’s whole world fell apart when his father died and Jodi was just incredible. She was there for him and he will never forget that, especially when Jodi’s own mother was ill at the same time.’
By that stage, the pair were already working on a joint venture – Wonderland, a girlband managed by Kian which included Jodi in the five-stong line-up. Put together after open auditions in 2008, the group went to Los Angeles for video shoots, had their story recorded for a reality TV show and opened for Westlife at Croke Park.
I first met Jodi in 2009. Wonderland had just performed as part of a showcase for Mercury Records and she was dissecting the routine. To say that she took charge would have been an understatement – she pointed out where they needed to improve and applauded their successes. She was charming, confident and articulate and very conscious of the fact that her husband was co-managing the band.
‘Westlife are a major band and we are just lucky to be touring with them,’ she told me that night.
‘I know people may say I get special treatment because I am married to Kian but that is just wrong. Westlife get to stay in the five-star hotels because they have sold millions of albums and sell out places like Croke Park. We haven’t done that and I can assure you I will be staying down the road with the girls in the Holiday Inn.’

True to her word, when I interviewed her a year later in Birmingham, she was slumming it with the other girls while Westlife lived it up in the Radisson Hotel.
Despite selling 40,000 albums, Wonderland were dropped by their record company in 2011 and disbanded shortly afterwards. Jodi was already pregnant at that stage and stayed in Sligo while Kian toured with Westlife. Their son Koa was born in December 2011.
I remember chatting to Jodi backstage at Westlife’s farewell concert in Croke Park in June 2012. She and Kian had held hands before the concert, and hugged and kissed before he was due to go on. During the performance she watched adoringly from the side of the stage, constantly blowing kisses at her husband as he was performing to 80,000 fans.
Today, they split their time between their family home in Sligo and Kian’s London apartment. Both obsessed with surfing, the couple have a blacked-out Volkswagen van that has been fitted with bunk beds and a camping stove.
They regularly travel around Ireland searching for big waves and spend the night in the van.
Jodi is as comfortable in the back of the van as she is in five-star hotels. For last year’s Electric Picnic, Kian drove the van to Stradbally and parked at the back of the main stage. Jodi spent the weekend tramping around the muddy site wearing a black and white cow-print onesie with her beau by her side.

More often than not, while Kian is on the Voice Of Ireland, Jodi will sit backstage in the green room with Koa. She plays with him and points out his daddy on the big screen. She is fiercely proud of her husband and when Kian performed Arcade Fire’s Wake Up with his fellow coaches, Jodi was again at the side of the stage cheering him on. Now that Koa is three, Jodi is ready to dip her toe back into work – she revealed to Terry Wogan they have recently taken on a nanny. After some 13million people watched her tearful moment with Kian in the jungle, there was a knock-on effect for her own career. Girl Thing reformed for ITV’s Big Reunion series and last month they played London’s Hammersmith Apollo as part of the Big Reunion concert.

She is also adamant about returning to acting, and there’s certainly no better time than the present for her to start attending castings.
While cynics may raise an eyebrow at the reasons Mr and Mrs Egan had for recording a duet, no-one doubts that the sentiments expressed in I Run To You are anything but heartfelt. ‘If people question whether Kian’s tears in the jungle were genuine, I can tell you 100 per cent they were,’ says a close friend. ‘They are one of the tightest couples out there and very much a team.’
They’ve captured the attention, and hearts, of the public, and we’re sure to see a lot more Team Egan.

Source: www.evoke.ie
By Eoin Murphy