Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams' feud led to Take That star's serious illness
Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams were riding high when Take That took over the charts.
The five-piece from Manchester amassed millions of fans with their debut track Do What You Like in 1919 - but behind the scenes a bitter feud was brewing.
Gary, 52, was the band's lead singer, but Robbie, 49, had big ambitions - and he wasn't going to let anyone get in his way.
The Angels star says he was 'forced to quit' Take That in 1995, leaving fans - and Mark Owen - heartbroken.
But there was no love lost between Robbie and Gary, whose broken relationship had serious consequences...
Strictly's Molly Rainford and Tyler West fuel romance rumours while on tour
Robbie brands Gary a 'clueless w****r'
After he quit Take That, leaving bandmate Mark Owen 'in tears', Robbie laid into Gary and his musical vision.
Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams were riding high when Take That took over the charts (Talkback Thames)Aged 21, he branded the singer a 'clueless w****r' and said the group, "had all the creativity of mentally unstable morons".
"I hated our music and in the end I also hated myself," he raged.
The band reportedly asked Robbie to leave after he went AWOL from their rehearsals, choosing instead to party up a storm with Liam Gallagher.
After leaving Take That, Robbie admitted: "I was a pathetic, pitiful creature. The first thing I would do in the morning would be to empty the bottle of wine that I had fallen asleep over two hours earlier. I'd have taken a line of coke because I couldn't get up without it."
Gary accuses Robbie of jealousy
Take That split up a year after Robbie left, but Gary was just getting started.
Gary accused Robbie of being jealous of his careerAfter launching his solo career and earning a reported £6.5million fortune from his songwriting royalties, he accused his former bandmate of being jealous of his sucess.
After releasing his number one single Forever Love, he sniped: "I do wonder if that’s the source of his [Robbie's] feelings because I probably made six times more than they did."
Robbie turns the tables
Robbie may have had to wait in the wings, but everything changed when he released Angels in 1997.
Robbie went on to have stellar successThe song catapulted him into the stratosphere, winning him three BRIT Awards and selling six million records.
Nail salon refuses to serve disabled teen saying it 'doesn't do people like her'
Gary, meanwhile, was forced to cancel a show at Glasgow’s Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre because of ticketing issues.
And after his second album, Stronger, limped into the charts number 35, he got dropped by his record label.
Speaking about Robbie's reaction, he conceded: "I can imagine the chat they’ll be having in Robbie-land tonight," he said at the time.
"The cheers, wolf whistles and belly laughs. There’s no question now, mate, you’re the winner, hands down.”
'My problem has always been Gary'
Despite his success, Robbie's friends warned him not to throw it all away amid his spiralling battle with drink and drugs.
Robbie slammed Gary even after his success with Angels (Getty Images)He snapped back: “Throw it all away? And see that fat **** Barlow dance on my grave? No way.”
Robbie continued to slam Gary and Take That, whenever he could, admitting: “My problem has always been with Gary. It was always with Gary.
“I wanted to crush him. I wanted to crush the memory of the band - and I didn't let go. You know, even when he was down, I didn't let go.”
Gary's secret illness
After the disappointment of his second album, Gary shunned the limelight before developing a serious eating disorder.
Trapped in a vicious cycle of binge-eating and bulimia, his weight ballooned to 17st - but he didn't care.
He said: "In some ways it sort of needed to happen. I had that ridiculous nineties period where the ego was just getting bigger and you just think, ‘There’s only one way back from this and it was down'.
Gary retreated from the limelight (Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)
He's spoken bravely about his eating disorder (Future Publishing via Getty Images)"Simply because it was a really humiliating thing that happened. I’d been in this band, it all ends, you get dropped, one of your band members goes on to be stratospheric, you’re just the loser.
"There’s like a big ‘L’ wherever you look, all over your body, you’re just a loser. I just didn’t want to be me. I just hated myself at that point.”
Gary added: "Being sick was a punishment for me. I didn’t want to mend it. Bizarrely, I wasn't unhappy doing it. It was good that it hurt."
Calling a truce
Gary invited Robbie to his home to discuss their fallout, telling us in 2018: “Living with that kind of feud isn’t right. The chat was like an exorcism.
Gary said his feud with Robbie had always bothered him (Getty Images)“Rob felt that for the last year of Take That, he was crying out to every one of us.
“In the end, he left and we handled that badly. We let him leave the fold and no one looked after him. Robbie was barely 21.
“What happened between me and Rob always bothered me.”
Take That will be performing at the King's Coronation Concert on Sunday, however Robbie will be reportedly be absent.
However, a recent post on the Take That page got everyone excited, with a video of all five stars - including Robbie and Jason Orange - on stage alongside a caption that said: "Never forget we will have fun like this again... someday soon..."
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
