From winning the first ever series of Love Island to his bromance with Callum Best, not to mention his links to Westlife And Atomic Kitten, Fran Cosgrave was like a walking emblem of noughties pop culture, all the way up to his frosted tips.
While influencer culture means that so many of today’s celebs don’t have an immediately recognisable talent, the nightclub owner from Dublin was the original ‘famous for being famous’ reality star with nobody quite sure why he was suddenly all over their screens.
His first claim to fame was being a bodyguard for boyband Westlife and his engagement to Natasha Hamilton forged the second major alliance between the Irish group and Atomic Kitten – with Brian McFadden, of course, married to Kerry Katona.
When his relationship with Natasha ended, he got together with Jodie Marsh and their memorable PDAs were as numerous as Fran’s reality stints, but things ended acrimoniously when she accused him of cheating with her friend and blasted his party lifestyle with close pal Calum Best.
By his own admission, things were spiralling out of control for Fran, who told Joe.ie: ‘I woke up one morning, bankrupt, five stone over weight, on antidepressants, jobless, on the dole and on the verge of becoming homeless – in short, the most miserable I had ever been in my life.’
But 20 years on from when he first entered the limelight and Fran Cosgrave looks a world away from his reality TV days, after ditching fame to become a DJ and launch his own coffee company.
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Fran also had a relationship with Jodie from 2003 to 2004, with the pair often seen making raucous and attention-grabbing public appearances together (seen in 2003)
He won the first ever series of Love Island in 2005, catapulting him to fame. But 20 years on and Fran Cosgrave looks a world away from his reality TV days (pictured on show)
Fran and Atomic Kitten star Natasha Hamilton attending the London premiere of Mike Bᴀssett: England Manager in 2001
The former nightclub owner, 47, has put his party days behind him and when he’s on the road, he said there’s ‘no drinking, no partying.
‘I’m eating well, training and exercising at every port, meditating and making sure that I get as much sleep as possible.’
He now focuses on running his business, RUUD Coffee, which he founded this year after launching his own bespoke coffee blends and brand, Concrete Coffee, in 2024.
Fran has also turned his back on TV to pursue his pᴀssion for house music, going by the name Futuristic Polar Bears, and becoming an international DJ.
He has produced hit tracks like Running Wild and Damaged, with his Instagram bio stating he has 90 Million streams on Spotify.
The Irish star often shares his music and shows to his followers, and has gone on tours to perform around the world, including Thailand, Ibiza, Germany, United States, Canada, Russia and Brazil.
The former page 3 girl slammed him after their split, claiming that she dumped him because he was drinking heavily, reliant on Viagra in bed and cheated on her with her friend (seen 2003)
The OG: Broadcaster Jayne Middlemiss and former Westlife bodyguard Fran Cosgrave won the show in 2005
The former nightclub owner, 47, has swapped his frosted tips and partying ways for a bushy beard and a life away from the spotlight (pictured now)
Fran has also turned his back on TV to pursue his pᴀssion for house music, going by the name Futuristic Polar Bears, and becoming an international DJ
While Fran is almost unrecognisable from how fans will remember him from the early noughties, having ditched his mohawk and packed on even more muscles, as well as adorning his impressive biceps with a wide ᴀssortment of tattoos
While Fran is almost unrecognisable from how fans will remember him from the early noughties, having ditched his mohawk and packed on even more muscles, as well as adorning his impressive biceps with a wide ᴀssortment of tattoos.
He appears to be a big fan of keeping fit and training in the gym, sharing topless selfies on X of his chiselled physique.
His first claim to fame was being a bodyguard for boyband Westlife, ahead of his TV debut on I’m A Celebrity in 2004, where he ended up in third place behind Joe Pasquale and Paul Burrell.
The following year, he appeared on the inaugural series of Celebrity Love Island, going on be crowned the first winner alongside Jayne Middlemiss.
The pair’s romance would prove to be short lived and they soon went their separate ways, but Fran remained close with fellow Islanders Callum Best and Paul Danan.
The trio reunited in 2006 for a short-lived car-crash reality show called Calum, Fran and Dangerous Danan, which saw them ravel from Texas to Los Angeles on Route 66.
He also released his autobiography, Reality Check, the same year, following his life from growing up on a Southern Ireland housing estate to climbing to fame.
Fran then made a failed attempt at pop stardom after signing with Skint Records and releasing the single Jetsetter in August that year.
His first claim to fame was being a bodyguard for boyband Westlife, ahead of his TV debut on I’m A Celebrity in 2004, where he ended up in third place behind Joe Pasquale and Paul Burrell (pictured)
While he also took part in Channel 4’s reality show, Fool Around With, where he was tasked with discovering who out of four girls was single.
And his love life also ended up in the headlines, with him enjoying relationships with Atomic Kitten star Natasha Hamilton and glamour model Jodie Marsh.
Fran and Natasha dated at the height of her fame in 2001 and welcomed son Josh, 22, in August 2002, before splitting the following year, then briefly reuniting in 2005, only to break-up again.
Explaining their split at the time, the singer said: ‘We were young and he worked until 6am. It was bound to fall apart.’
Fran also had a relationship with Jodie from 2003 to 2004, with the pair often seen making raucous and attention-grabbing public appearances together.
The former page 3 girl slammed him after their split, claiming that she dumped him because he was drinking heavily, reliant on Viagra in bed and cheated on her with her friend.
Fran reunited with fellow Islanders Calum Best and Paul Danan in 2006 for a short-lived car-crash reality show called Calum, Fran and Dangerous Danan, which saw them travel from Texas to Los Angeles on Route 66 (pictured)
He also released his autobiography, Reality Check, the same year,and then made a failed attempt at pop stardom after signing with Skint Records and releasing the single Jetsetter (seen in 2005)
In an interview with The Sunday People in 2004, Jodie also claimed to have discovered she was pregnant with his child a week after their split, but that when she called to tell him the news he ‘screamed’ at her and insisted she was lying.
She said: ‘I never wanted to get back with Fran – as far as I was concerned our relationship was over. I thought that, as the father, Fran had the right to know and should have a say in the matter. But he screamed down the phone at me, calling me a f***ing liar, saying I was attention seeking and making it all up.
‘I felt so hurt that a man I had once loved could speak to me like that. I wouldn’t have wanted to have a baby with a bloke like him. He was a boozer and a womaniser and if he treated me like that, what kind of father would he be?’
Jodie went on: ‘In the beginning he was loving and protective. Then he became aggressive and controlling but I turned a blind eye to it because I loved him.
‘I paid for everything – the roof over his head, his clothes, his food, his drink, weekends away. I spent pounds 60,000 on Fran – but the most he ever bought me was a bunch of flowers from a garage for my birthday. He had no shame or pride.’
She claimed Fran ‘left me with no confidence’ and that he would go out every night, sometimes coming home so drunk he was ‘shaking and vomiting’.
And his love life also ended up in the headlines, with him enjoying relationships with Atomic Kitten star Natasha Hamilton and glamour model Jodie Marsh (pictured with Jodie in 2003)
Fran and Natasha dated at the height of her fame in 2001 and welcomed son Josh, 22, in August 2002, before splitting the following year, then briefly reuniting in 2005, only to break-up again (seen in 2005)
In an interview with The Sunday People in 2004, Jodie also claimed to have discovered she was pregnant with his child a week after their split, but that when she called to tell him the news he ‘screamed’ at her and insisted she was lying (seen in 2004)
After he confessed to sleeping with one of her close pals, she said she ended it, saying: ‘For me that was the ultimate betrayal and I kicked him out of my house. Something in my head just clicked and I realised what a complete and utter doormat I’d been for this man.’
Jodie added to The Telegraph in 2005: ‘I felt like I couldn’t live without him. But it was only him sleeping with my mate that turned a light on in my head and I said, “Wake up you stupid girl!”
After turning his back on fame, Fran went on to become the proud father of daughter, Patience Elisabeth, 15, and son Elijah, 14, with partner Elle Crawforth.
He has said that he’s happiest when at home with his family, admitting that he no longer mixes in the party circles he was frequently surrounded by in his younger years.
Fran has admitted that his time in the spotlight was full with as many lows as it was highs, having battled depression and bankruptcy when his nightclub business went bust.
In 2019, he reflected on his rapid rise to fame after Love Island, recalling: ‘I was on Oxford Street and people were screaming in the streets, running out of shops to get an autograph – it sounds unbelievable now but it was absolutely insane.
‘I did a DJ show up North and they had to take me off the decks as there was a huge crush at the front. I’d spend 20 minutes signing autographs in Tesco.’
However, he admitted there was also a lot of harsh comments from people ‘being ridiculously horrible’, making him become depressed and turn to food for comfort, resulting in him putting on four and a half stone and losing much of his hair.
In an interview with The Daily Mail, Fran admitted: ‘I went through a time where I didn’t look like me. Everyone was slagging me off, and I really felt I just had to take it.’
While he explained that the duty of care protocols set up by ITV to protect Love Island contestants’ mental health didn’t exist when he did the show in 2005.
After turning his back on fame, Fran went on to become the proud father of daughter, Patience Elisabeth, 15, and son Elijah, 14, with partner Elle Crawforth (seen with his three children)
He has said that he’s happiest when at home with his family, admitting that he no longer mixes in the party circles he was frequently surrounded by in his younger years
He said: ‘God, there wasn’t anything like that, and I think some people on the show had really challenging days – which is only to be expected if you’re somewhere for 11 or 12 weeks.
‘You’d go have a chat with someone in the hut or whatever, but there was no awareness [of what challenges might arise] afterwards. That’s the thing with fame. I always tell people not to get to wrapped up in it.’
He struggled with continuing his career as he got older and said he became fed up of the industry by 2008, saying: ‘For me and Calum, the whole thing was party, party, party. I just felt I couldn’t go on after a point.
‘There were a lot of younger people moving into the scene, and I just felt it wasn’t the place for me. I needed to figure out how to make my next move and ended up facing mᴀssive personal challenges.
‘It was extremely hard going from one stage to the other and I tried to step away and go back to normal life. A lot of the stuff I’d done in the club industry, I just needed to move away from it.’
Fran previously told Jennifer Zamparelli on RTE 2FM, that he began to reject TV offers and pull away from the celebrity scene.
He said: ‘You can’t take it [fame] too seriously because it’s gone as quick as it comes. As it came towards 2009, things just started to spin out of control a bit, as it does.
‘I was kind of finished with the whole celebrity thing. I started saying, “no” to loads of programmes and I just wasn’t interested in it.
Fran has admitted that his time in the spotlight was full with as many lows as it was highs, having battled depression and bankruptcy (seen in 2005)
While he explained that the duty of care protocols set up by ITV to protect Love Island contestants’ mental health didn’t exist when he did the show in 2005 (seen on show with cast)
He sold his last nightclub to Peter Stringfellow in 2009 and turned to studying and finding his pᴀssion for personal coaching, claiming that ‘it saved my life’
‘My manager, rightly so, was like, “Mate why won’t you do any of these things?” I was just like, “I’m not there anymore”.’
He sold his last nightclub to Peter Stringfellow in 2009 and turned to studying and finding his pᴀssion for personal coaching, claiming that ‘it saved my life’.
Though he previously admitted he would return to reality TV ‘in a heartbeat’, he was the ‘happiest I’ve ever been’.
Fran told the Mail: ‘If something came up, I’d do it in a heartbeat, but genuinely, it’s okay if it doesn’t. I’m now the happiest I’ve ever been in my whole life – I’ve managed to turn my pᴀssions and dreams into my everyday life. But I know I’m one of the lucky stories.’
While he issued a wise word of warning to today’s reality stars and the pursuit of fame, saying it was ‘artificially inflated’ and that ‘very few people can make it last’.
‘When things go wrong, people look around and wonder why it’s happening and who is doing this, but the biggest lesson I learned at that time was to look at myself and realise that I was the one making bad decisions.
‘That was the real changing point for me. You learn very quickly not to get caught up in it. It’s a disillusion bubble, and pretty soon you adjust to what negative stuff people are saying.
‘The problem with today’s reality stars is that you are taking kids out of normal jobs like working in Tesco, and then thrust them into a celebrity bubble. It’s artificially inflated.
‘The experience comes and goes but the danger lies in thinking, “I’ve made it now”. Very few people can make it last. The expectation of kids when they see this stuff on TV radically changes their expectations of being famous.’
