Ronan Keating's former mistress is now claiming - via an interview with The Sun on Sunday (unofficially formerly known as News Of The World) - that he wanted to marry her. Obviously not that much.

It's unclear why she kept this nugget to herself until now (maybe the Piers Morgan interview jogged a few memories), but it was good of her wait until himself and ex-wife Yvonne were settled in new relationships.

Francine Cornell says the 35-year-old singer - who announced in April he and Yvonne, who he has kids Jack, 13, Missy, 11, and seven-year-old Ali with, had split following his affair - wanted to tie the knot with the backing dancer and would often tell the 28-year-old blonde he was "in love" with her.

She said: "Once I asked, 'Do you think I'll still see your name on my phone in 20 years?' He said, 'In 20 years, we will be married'. At the time it was nice and I think it's what he believed. I never asked Ronan to leave Yvonne. He was the one who'd bring it up. He'd say, 'It's you I love, you're the one I want to be with. I love Yvonne as she's the mother of my kids, yet I'm in love with you. But I can't do this to my children'."

The Boyzone singer met Francine in 2009 when she was hired as one of the group's eight dancers for their six-week UK and Ireland tour, and when the tour ended he got her number from his late bandmate Stephen Gately, who she used to meet for coffee and bants about Ronan.

Francine admits Gately's death in October 2009, aged 33, brought her and Ronan closer together: "Ronan took the news really badly as he was in a bad place to start with emotionally. His life was in tatters. He and Yvonne had grown apart, so he needed me then more than ever."

Francine insists Ronan's 14-year marriage was already on the rocks when they got together, and admits he used to "constantly worry" about destroying his image. She said "Ronan was constantly worried about what other people thought of him with his squeaky-clean image. As a Catholic, leaving his wife would just be the worst thing and everyone would judge him. Obviously we could never walk down a street hand-in-hand. We went for dinner once and I'd fly out to his solo tour whenever I could. I have constantly been painted as the scarlet woman who ruined a perfect marriage. It couldn't be further from the truth. The marriage was already in trouble before either Ronan or his wife knew who I was."

That's handy if you're one for foreign flings... never thought of adding "Oh, no, I can never leave the partner, I'm a Catholic you see - they'd shtone me in the shtreet!" to the repertoire.