Take That’s new docuseries offers fans a revealing and intimate look at the challenges the band has faced.
The Netflix show, Take That, tells the story of the band’s incredible rise to fame and their dramatic fall after Robbie Williams left in 1995.
Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, and Mark Owen provide the narration for the series, which includes previously unreleased footage of the band and older interviews with Jason Orange and Robbie Williams.
Although it’s well-known now, Robbie struggled with drink and drug addiction while he was in the band. Gary has admitted he didn’t realize Robbie was the most vulnerable member, and now feels bad for not recognizing that at the time.
Mark explained that the situation escalated when Robbie came back from Glastonbury after drinking heavily. He said, ‘Rob came back completely intoxicated.’
It was clear people weren’t very interested, and Gaz and J were quite annoyed about it.
The band members talked to Robbie about his actions, and he responded by saying he was going to leave.
Gary remembered Jason saying, “If you’re going to leave, just go now.” He initially thought Jason would return the next day, as he’d witnessed similar situations before.
‘We woke up the next morning and it was some newspaper thing of Robbie’s split from the band.
Honestly, it completely floored me. I’ve been replaying it in my head ever since, just asking myself a million things. What does this mean? What happens next? It’s like everything I thought I knew is up in the air now, and I can’t stop wondering about the future.
Looking back, if we’d known that was going to happen, we would have approached it differently – especially after everything we’d been through together. It all felt very spontaneous and unplanned at the time.
‘These things, they never happen the way you read them, it’s trickier, it’s more complex.’
Mark added: ‘It was a really odd couple of days, really odd.
It seems strange that something so significant – his departure – could be dismissed so casually, especially considering how much it impacted our group.
I didn’t have a conversation with Gaz and Howard to figure out what to do about this. It actually took a TV show asking us how we felt before anyone even checked in with us.
Although the band initially planned to carry on with its original four members, Gary confessed they quickly became envious of the independence Robbie enjoyed as a solo artist. This was happening while their manager, Nigel Martin-Smith, kept a close watch on everything they did.
“It just felt natural that we’d all want to move on,” Gary said, explaining that he’d talked to everyone about going their separate ways.
However, not everyone reacted positively to Howard’s confession. He admitted to feeling angry because he was so determined to maintain his connection with the group.
Even though we were just a four-person band, we were doing really well. We had a sold-out tour and topped the charts, so it makes you wonder why things changed.
It really struck me because my immediate thought was, “Now what?” I’ve only ever learned how to be a pop star…
Everyone else was aware of what was happening and braced for the worst, but I was lost in a hopeful belief that things would just keep getting better.
Growing up, I didn’t excel in school and didn’t go on to university. I never imagined achieving success or becoming someone significant, so being on stage felt incredibly empowering, like I was a superhero.
Honestly, it broke my heart hearing him talk about what happened after the band fell apart. He said it felt like… like he was actually going into a depression. It was so raw, and you could just feel how much it affected him. It wasn’t just sadness, it was… something deeper, something that really consumed him. I just wanted to reach through the screen and hug him, you know? It was awful to hear him describe it like that.
I went to the River Thames at a time when I was deeply unhappy and considering suicide. But ultimately, I didn’t go through with it, feeling I wasn’t strong enough even to do that.
Becoming a father to his daughter, Grace, caused Howard to worry about money and adjust to the challenges of parenthood.
He remembered thinking, ‘My money is disappearing quickly, so I need to be careful and downsize to a smaller home.’
‘Reality again kicks you in the head. This is your life, you’re not a pop star anymore.’
Mark was going through a tough time too, as his record label had dropped him when his attempt at a solo career didn’t succeed.
‘You start to feel very negative about yourself,’ he said.
Gary faced a setback when his attempt to launch a successful solo career didn’t live up to his previous achievements with the band.
Looking back, I was completely delusional! I genuinely felt on top of the world, like nothing could touch me. My ego? It was HUGE. Seriously, I acted like everyone owed me something, like the world was just supposed to hand me everything I wanted. It’s embarrassing to admit now, but I was so confident, so full of myself… it was a crazy time.
‘When you’ve been at that height you think everything you touch turns to triple platinum.’
However, things didn’t turn out that way, and when Robbie became more successful than Gary, they began arguing publicly.
‘Robbie was feeding off the press a bit. That’s when it got nasty and it was just not needed.
Things got very competitive at that point. We were both striving for the same goal, but only one of us could succeed.
Robbie’s teasing bothered not only Gary, but also Howard, who admitted he was disappointed with the person Robbie had become.
It really bothered me because Gary is a close friend, so naturally I defended him. I felt a lot of anger towards Robbie.
Perhaps envy over his achievements, combined with his seemingly effortless success and tendency to flaunt it, intensified the negative feelings. It’s natural to want to see someone who appears to have it all stumble.
It was really tough watching Gary get relentlessly mocked, and honestly, it felt even worse because Robbie was publicly joining in. I felt so bad for him, seeing everything play out like that.
‘It was just so excruciating,’ he confessed. ‘You just wanted to crawl into a hole.
I went through a time where I stayed home for about thirteen months straight. During that period, I also gained weight, and I noticed people began to stop recognizing me as I changed.
I finally felt like I was getting my life back on track, like things were normal again. That’s when I decided to take action. I’d eat anything that was offered to me… and that led to me killing the pop star.
Gary’s weight increased significantly to 17 stone, and he developed bulimia, an eating disorder he struggled with until he got help in 2003.
The band reunited in 2005 to create a documentary for ITV, but Robbie filmed his parts separately, not on location with the others.
Gary remembered that everyone reacted to Rob’s absence differently. Mark and Jason were sad to see him go, but Gary couldn’t stand him.
They decided it was time to move on from old conflicts when news surfaced about Robbie’s struggles with substance abuse.
Worried about their old friend’s well-being, they quickly flew to Los Angeles to support him, and Gary pulled him aside for a private conversation.
Gary remembered that both he and Rob had a lot on their minds they wanted to share with each other, but they’d never actually talked about it.
Howard explained that they visited Robbie’s house, where Robbie spent a long time talking to Gary. He discussed his feelings about Gary from the 1990s and how those experiences had affected him, going on at length about it.
Gary remembered people being unsupportive of his songwriting and, surprisingly, also commenting on his weight.
‘I’d called him Blobby instead of Robbie one day – which I hold my hands up, I shouldn’t have done.
After around 20 to 25 minutes, we resolved issues that had been troubling us for years, and it felt like we were finally able to move on.
The band came back together with Robbie for their 2006 tour, and Gary explained he was really struggling at the time and needed the support of everyone.
‘That was really the first time I felt I was in Take That. That was when the band started for me.’
Take That lands on Netflix on Tuesday, January 27.
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2026-01-25 13:20