X FACTOR judge Ronan Keating's life is going places but he has to live with the fact that he betrayed his wife and family by having an affair.
"I did make a mistake," Keating told Mail on Sundaynewspaper.
"And I'm still trying to make up for that. I love my wife and my family is everything to me. Right now I’m trying to be the man I want to be. I'm trying to get there."
Keating and his wife Yvonne, a former model, announced they had separated in May last year as it became public that Keating had an affair with a Boyzonedancer Francine Cornell. They subsequently reunited when Keating was in Australia.
"The people I love the most have been hurt - my family. I take the blame for that. Everyone is responsible for their own actions.
"I love Yvonne very much."
Keating, who is touring with his band Boyzone, is about to reinvent himself as an actor. He auditioned for the lead in Baz Luhrmann's 2001 musical Moulin Rouge ("Ewan McGregor got that one, and fair play to him - he was amazing") and missed out on parts in The Lord of the Rings and King Arthur.
He now has the lead in a romantic comedy, Goddess, which starts filming in Australia next month (he plays a marine biologist), and a role in another film which he did not want to talk about.
Next year he’ll be undertaking the first stage of an ascent of Everest.
"I'm planning to get to Base Camp next year," he says. "Climbing Everest is a two to three-year training plan, but I'm in. I have this absolute love of the elements. I’m obsessed with Bear Grylls and anything to do with the outdoors, survival. It focuses the mind."
He also plans to swim the Irish Sea in September with Richard Branson and his Boyzone bandmate Shane Lynch.
"I'm a terrible swimmer, so I need to get on with some training, but we’ll be doing it in relays. There's nothing like a challenge."
Has Keating immersed himself in challenges or has he put his family first?
"Family. It's all about family. When I'm away in Australia I miss Yvonne and the kids so much.
"We speak every day and she comes out when she can. They are everything to me. Yvonne is everything. Absolutely."
