Ronan Keating slept near Gately's body
Bang! Showbiz
Relevant offers
Celebrities
Ronan Keating says spending the night with Stephen Gately's body was a "beautiful" experience.
The Boyzone star and his bandmates - Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham and Shane Lynch - spent the evening before the singer's funeral last month at a Dublin church because they wanted to be together for one last time.
Ronan said: "We didn't want him to be alone in the church and nor did his mother Margaret because he was afraid of the dark.
"We got four sleeping bags and laid with him. It was the most moving experience of my life. It was beautiful. We sat on the pews and we sat on the floor."
The four singers were determined to stay as close to their late bandmate as possible, and even shunned comforts offered by the priest.
Ronan explained to Britain's The Sun newspaper: "At one point the priest came up and said, 'Lads, won't you lie up on the alter? At least it's got carpet down.
"But we wouldn't go up there. It was the only time we'd ever had stage fright."
Ronan - a devout Catholic - admits Stephen's sudden death has caused him to question his religious beliefs.
He said: "I just don't understand t. Where has he gone, why was he taken? I question my faith constantly but I'm a believer so I try to think there must be some sort of logic behind it, that God wanted him."
Stephen died aged 33 from an acute pulmonary oedema, a build-up of fluid in the lungs, at his holiday home in Majorca on October 10.
Sponsored links
Sandra moves out amid affair claims
On stage nerves for Emma Watson
Jennifer Love Hewitt hates splits
Shia LaBeouf talks about lover
Masterchef responsibility 'too much'
Another woman in Winslet split?
Sandra Bullock 'no show' at premiere
Outrageous Fortune tops awards
Inquiries into leaks 'a witch-hunt'
Minister turns hose on dirty dairying
Judge takes Hells Angels gang patch in test case
Elderly couple 'lucky to survive' Wellington sinking
Crown considers appeal in spybase case
Air NZ plans low fares for Tasman
Irish politician escapes heat in NZ
Waihopai spy-base verdict irks locals
'External' spies turn focus on home front
Reality TV turning kids off junk food
Shane Cameron wins in farcical fashion
Aussie Customs mix-up: iced tea, not drugs
Shane Cameron wins in farcical fashion
Banker blew $3.4m on prostitutes
Injured dog checks himself into hospital
$5m Lottery win - day after divorce
Banker's life of sex, booze and fraud
Sandra moves out amid affair claims
Facebook hit by virus-laden spam
Murder charge in Lower Hutt missing person case
More faults on Wellington trains
Editorial: Israel's gesture of contempt
Forty shades of blue as St Pat's boys go marching in
Pay rise for Wellington city councillors
Dome was damaged 'for the greater good'
Should Farrah Fawcett have been included in the Oscars In Memoriam segment?