Westlife singer Kian Egan has confirmed that Mark Feehily will return to band after he recovers from his health woes.
The Sligo man confirmed that the band’s much-loved fourth member ‘will be back’ but couldn’t pinpoint when the singer will return. He added that Mark is simply ‘trying live a normal life’ at the moment.
It comes just weeks after it emerged Mark is suing a surgeon over a weight-loss operation in August 2020, which he alleges led to recurring sepsis and the removal of his stomach.
His health struggles continued with bouts of pneumonia, a large incisional hernia, and multiple major follow-up operations. In 2024, Mark officially announced a hiatus from touring with Westlife to focus on his recovery, missing the group’s 25th-anniversary world tour and recent Dublin residency.
But Kian told Kathryn Thomas on her podcast, Are We There Yet?: ‘He is still a member of Westlife. The best way to describe it is, he just doesn’t have the energy to do what we’re doing.
‘He’s just not well enough to tour. Obviously we’re on stage for two hours every night.
‘We try not to divulge information that he doesn’t want out there. So I think the way to kind of describe it is that he’s had sepsis repeated on him a few times.’
‘When we were on the last tour, Mark got sepsis, and then got pneumonia, and then he went back in for an operation. And so he’s doing well. He’s trying to get everything back together and just live a normal life,’ the singer explained.
‘Hopefully he’ll be back with us as soon as he feels ready. He did tell us to continue on with this tour. He didn’t want us to stop. So we were kind of like, “Okay, you know, if you’re happy, then we’ll go for it.”‘
‘He will be back, he just doesn’t know when he’s going to be back to his full health.’
Kian’s confession comes after Mark launched the medical negligence lawsuit in England. The Sunday Times revealed that his health complications began back in August 2020 after weight loss surgery.
According to the outlet, Mark fell ill after he underwent a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. They reported that bariatric surgeon Nick Carter, who is based in the UK, failed to remove enough of Mark’s stomach during the operation.
The tissue left behind allegedly caused a leak leading to severe abdominal infections, recurrent sepsis and hospital admission. Mark had to undergo an operation to have his entire stomach removed in 2023 as a result.
The Sunday Times reported that the surgeon denies negligence.
