I have worked long and hard to try to reduce my debts, and I am devastated that it came to this conclusion. I now intend to focus on the remaining dates of the Westlife tour and my commitments to the band before looking to rebuild a future for my wife, my three children and myself.

When your child is looking up at you and you are putting them to bed at night, and they are just lying there, you have to remind yourself that's what it's all about.

The couple of years before I was declared bankrupt were the roughest. The bank letters, the pressure, the stress was awful. You're in this twilight zone of not knowing where your life is going, and yet you're in Westlife. Everything was great with the band. I was earning money, and it looked good.

My whole world changed when Michael Jackson brought out the Bad album when I was about eight or nine. He took over my whole life and from then on I wanted to be Michael Jackson. I watched his videos for hours and learned how to dance like him. I would push back the chairs in the room and learn his dance moves. I even taught myself to moonwalk.

Together with a team of financial and legal experts I have spent months exploring all possible alternatives to bankruptcy but to no avail.

You shouldn't end a band like Westlife and not be financially secure to some extent, but I wasn't at all - it was the complete opposite. But you look at stuff then, 'Well, what do I have? I don't have money but I have a great marriage, three healthy kids, and I have my voice. I'll just start again.'

My kids are Irish; I want them to grow up playing Gaelic football and learning Irish.