Jason Orange's disappearance from Take That - rare sightings and cryptic emails
When Take That returned during a one-off lockdown special in May 2020, fans didn't expect to see boy band member Jason Orange. Everyone may remember when Robbie Williams, 49, dramatically left the globally renowned group back in 1995, but a few years later, Jason followed in his footsteps, quitting the group in 2014.
It was just four years after Robbie had made amends and rejoined. But since leaving Take That, Jason has famously gone to ground, and Robbie even sent out an appeal for his whereabouts. He even admitted that in 2019 he hadn't heard from Jason, 53, in months and joked that he should 'hire a private detective' to find him.
Gary Barlow, 52, also admitted they've struggled to track him down because he sends mysterious emails and then changes his email address without telling them. "We hear from Jason now and again. Then when you reply the email doesn’t work," Gary told the Metro.
Jason Orange, Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Howard Donald and Robbie Williams formed Take That at the start of the Nineties (Getty Images)
Jason walked out on the band in 2014 (Getty)The concerned star, from Frodsham, Cheshire, believes that whatever is going on with Jason is 'bigger than we all know', but insisted he's not in a position to probe. He continued: "It’s bigger than we all know. Him cutting himself off from a life he just didn’t want any more. If you were 20 you would open the discussion up, but he is a grown man. You have to respect the fact he doesn’t want to do this. It was hard for us to watch him go. It’s nice as three, but the ultimate is a five."
At the time of Jason's departure, the dancer and former decorator explained that there had been 'no falling out', insisting he simply didn't want to be in the band anymore. According to Howard, Jason had 'fallen out of love with music' and wanted a quiet life.
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And Gary added: "He didn’t want creative involvement because we’re day-to-day on this and he wanted to leave. "This has been weird with the whole Jason thing. He’d told us for a while, ‘I don’t want to be in music any more, I don’t want to do this any more’, and we’d push, push, push.
"At the end of the day you’ve got to accept someone doesn’t want to do what you’re doing any more. He wanted to go off, live his life, and good luck to him if that’s what he wants to do. He’s spent a big part of his life being in the band, but he doesn’t want to do it any more, it’s that simple."
Mark, Gary, Robbie and Howard performing without Jason in 2018 (Dave Benett/Getty Images)However, their ex-manager, Nigel Martin-Smith had a different take on things and claimed Jason had battled demons over his position in the band. "When I put Jason in the band he loved it but he turned around years later and said he was upset with me," he told the Daily Star.
"He said he couldn’t sing, he wasn’t a musician and I had no right to put him in the band. He wanted to know why I did it to him. He said he had loads of issues as a result of it and seemed to blame me for ruining his life. I couldn’t believe it.
“I said, ‘Jay, you’ve travelled the world first class, stayed in five-star hotels, had women throwing themselves at you, had the most amazing life, with how many millions in the bank.' That’s how bizarre it is.” Indeed, as far as Jason was concerned, life with Take That wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and he went so far as to claim he felt 'robbed' by his first stint with the boyband in the early Nineties.
Jason admitted he felt 'robbed' by his first stint in Take That (Rex)"I think every person's job either feeds them or takes from them," he explained to the Sunday Times in 2011. "Take That, for me, the first time, took from me. It gave me money, it gave me a standard of living, but it robbed me of my voice.
"To come back as an older adult, on my guard a bit and wiser, I know it sounds melodramatic, but it's like there's this thing up there, and we can all give to it and get back from it, and it shines into us, and we can all grow from it. Or it will just rob us again, and we'll leave with all this s*** that we didn't say or didn't do."
Since walking away from the band in 2014, Jason has rarely been spotted. However, after Robbie's appeal he was seen queuing in a dry cleaners in the picturesque Cotswolds village of Chipping Norton. And he was said to have been house-hunting for a secluded property in nearby Stow-on-the-Wold. An insider told The Sun: “Jason booked into a hotel in Stow and spent the week looking around the area eyeing up houses.
Jason, Mark, Gary and Howard got the band back together in 2006 - without Robbie (ITV)"He looked around a couple of areas including Moreton-in-Marsh and was being shown properties that cost around the £10million mark. “The places he viewed included an enormous manor house which was set back from the road and very secluded.
"Jason likes the idea of living a quiet life in the countryside and the Cotswolds is a really desirable place to be. Plus it’s not far from London.” This isn't the first time Jason is believed to have escaped to the country.
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In the run up to Take That's last tour, his former bandmates had reached out to him and he was enjoying the quiet life in the rural market town of Kendal in Cumbria. Close to the Lake District and surrounded by rolling hills, Jason was said to be relishing life outside the limelight. At the time Howard said: "He’s not taking emails or phone calls or stuff like that. That’s good for him.
"That’s where he wants to be. I think he wants to be a million miles away from this at the moment." He was spotted buying a pair of wellies and in 2017 was seen enjoying a meal at Zeffirellis restaurant in Ambleside in the Lake District.
Jason seemed to have made the Lake District his base as he was also pictured chatting to a netball team in a pub in Kirkby Londsale and in a supermarket in Windermere. However, there is some hope on the horizon that one day Jason will rejoin Gary, Robbie, Mark Owen and Howard as a five-piece once more.
In January Gary told the How To Wow podcast that there's still a chance, insisting: ‘I think there will [be], I think there will [be]. He continued: "That’s one of the thrills of being in the band. You don’t know what’s going to happen from record to record and it’s lovely. It’s a very safe place Take That. It’s a lovely environment. It feels like a safe haven. It’s a place to go back to when you’ve done a bit of playing around and it’s time to go home."
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