Donal Skehan is best known for his cooking segments on ITV’s This Morning, but he had a rather secretive past in the boyband Streetwize which was involved in controversy

This Morning star Donal Skehan has opened up on the scandal that affected one of his former colleagues in the wake of a new Netflix documentary.

Best known for showing off his cooking skills on the ITV daytime show, Donal actually started out his career in the world of boybands, and specifically the group Streetwize in the early 2000s. Donal reckoned he’d finally got his “big break” when he was invited to audition for music mogul Lou Pearlman – but it quickly went downhill.

Opening up in an Instagram post after watching Netflix exposé Dirty Pop, Donal wrote: “Okay now here’s a bloody throwback Thursday for you! Just finished watching Dirty Pop on Netflix, and wow what a ride it was. Back in about summer of 2005 I was wrapped up in the whole world of boybands.

Donal Skehan starred alongside Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on This Morning

“We’d spent a year forming and rehearsing and thought we’d got our big break when our band Streetwize (note the Z) auditioned for the infamous Lou Pearlman. When we got to his office in Florida, the epicentre for all things pop where bands like NSync, Backstreet Boys, O-Town, Britney and many more got their starts, we spent hours in reception to get to see him.”

The statement continued: “He had god-like status down there. When we finally got to his office we all sang for him and everything went really well and we thought we were getting our big break when Lou asked us to stay on. He invited us to stay the week with him, we were wined and dined – VIP Disneyland trips, private mansion tours, and exclusive looks at his bands like C-Note.

This Morning star Donal Skehan opened up about his boyband past ( Image: BBC)

“It all seemed like a dream come true. Little did we know, he had already made up his mind. Lou ultimately chose one of our members for another band and sent the rest of us packing! A proper early life lesson and now watching the Netflix doc it must have only been a couple of months after we left that it was revealed Lou’s empire was built on lies!

“A wild ride and crazy to see it all in doc form. There were plenty of red flags in our experience and definitely a lesson that when something looks too good to be true, it probably is! How about that 2005 fashion tho!”

Accompanying the post were snaps of Donal from his noughties heyday – looking baby-faced and rocking hair gelled into spikes. Commenters couldn’t get over the drastic change, with one penning: “You look like you just fell out of the womb – how did you have words let alone songs!”

He opened up on Netflix documentary Dirty Pop

Another joked: “Almost baby Donal looks too cute, sorry he had to go through all that. But that’s life and you made yourself a much better life later.”

Though Streetwize wasn’t ultimately a success, Donal later went on to join the band Industry from 2009 until 2010, and even auditioned to be Ireland’s Eurovision Song Contest entry in 2008 – though he ultimately wasn’t selected. Instead he went on to become a chef and present segments of shows including This Morning, Saturday Kitchen and the Today Show.

As for mogul Lou Pearlman, in 2008 he was convicted of money laundering, conspiracy and making false statements during bankruptcy proceedings, and sentenced to 25 years behind bars. He died in prison in 2016 after running one of the largest Ponzi schemes in US history.