The wife of former Westlife star Brian McFadden has called Irish emigrants living in Australia “smelly” in controversial remarks.

Her comments were highlighted on the front page of the Irish Echo, the leading locally-produced Irish newspaper in Australia, and have drawn many angry remarks.

Model and reality star Vogue Williams (27) made the comments on an Irish television show called “Vogue Does Home and Away,” a program built around her obsession with the long-running Australian soap opera "Home and Away."

She visited Sydney’s Palm Beach, on Summer Bay, where the soap opera is filmed.
To her surprise the beach was filled with Irish expatriates.

“It’s pretty mental being on this beach finally after watching it for almost 20 years. It’s just a pity about all the smelly Irish who are here,” the model stated.

“The most shocking fact about Summer Bay is not that it looks so much like Brittas Bay (a popular beach in Ireland) It is that it seems to be almost exclusively populated with Irish people.”

Former boyband star McFadden himself has been no stranger to controversy. On a New Zealand radio show in 2008 he allegedly made anti-gay remarks, which were strongly condemned by gay groups.

He was quoted as saying “In the old days there was no such thing as gay. It was frowned upon.

The church would burn you at the stake. Modern day, if you are not gay, a man should not be wearing pink. Unless of course you're in the America's Cup and you're one of these pansies who walk around with Gant t-shirts with your collars up, and you wear pink and you wear white trousers with those dirty brown slip-on shoes. Then you're just an idiot.”