Louis Walsh made damning statement about Boyzone after they branded his treatment 'cruel'

Louis Walsh made a damning statement about Boyzone following the band branding the manager’s treatment as ‘cruel’.

The former The X Factor judge created and managed the hugely successful Irish pop band, going on to manage Ronan Keating when he took a break from the group. But a new documentary lays out the long-running feud between Boyzone and Walsh, leaving fans shocked and angry with the details.

Now streaming on Sky Documentaries and NOW, Boyzone: No Matter What features interviews with all four remaining members of the ‘Picture of You’ band; Keating, Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch and Michael ‘Mikey’ Graham. Stephen Gately, who passed away in 2009, features in footage.

The men openly criticise Walsh’s leadership of the group as the doc promises to ‘reveal the truth of what really happened, the extraordinary highs of their meteoric rise to fame, and the huge costs that being in a boyband had on each of them’.

Boyzone were put together by Walsh in the 90s, after he decided to create an Irish version of Take That and held open auditions.

In the doc, he says: “I prefer ordinary people, because they work harder. And they do whatever you want at the start."

Ronan Keating and Louis Walsh. ( Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

As Keating reflects: “We were a bunch of kids put together. We weren't perfect, we weren't polished."

And Lynch claims Walsh promised them the ‘sun, moon and stars’.

In quite the slam, the music manager can be seen smiling as he discusses the publicity of Boyzone, saying: “They believed their own publicity. They forgot I wrote it.”

During No Matter What, the 72-year-old admitted to planting false stories about the band to generate publicity, even saying they were involved in a plane crash.

“I forgot to tell the families I made it up. There was no plane crash. But it was a good story.”

Boyzone have discussed the feud with Louis Walsh. (Joseph Okpako/WireImage)

He adds: “I never felt guilty about it. No way. I was promoting them. I was doing my job. I would do it all again. I would do it even more again now.”

Keating explains they were caught out by this confusion, having no idea where the false stories would come from.

Walsh continues: “Sometimes the boys would read stories in the papers about themselves that weren’t true, and they’d say, ‘Who told them that?’ No, I did. I told them because I am promoting you. I’d big them up sometimes.”

Boyzone: For Better or Worse is available to watch on Sky now.