Take That ‘triggered’ by Netflix documentary as Gary Barlow shares weight gain pictures

EXCLUSIVE: Watching their Netflix documentary was difficult for Take That who were forced to relive the trauma of break ups and mental health wobbles in an exclusive interview

Reliving the highs and lows of their pop career in a new Netflix documentary was “triggering” for Take That.

Three part series Take That, now streaming, celebrates the boyband’s incredible rise, fall then monumental comeback, but along the way they’re faced with major fallouts and even greater mental health struggles that haunted them for years.

It was a difficult watch for Howard Donald who told the Daily Star: “It is triggering maybe more triggering for others. Maybe more for Gary and Robbie. But it just makes me very proud to watch a three part documentary on Netflix of our life so far, as Take That, covering 35 years and three hours. There’s a lot of stuff that makes you feel uncomfortable. There’s a lot of stuff that makes you feel very happy and laugh out loud as well. I feel it’s a really true to Take That documentary. Truest ever.”

One of the most shocking moments in the series comes when Gary Barlow shares never before seen photos of his struggle with bulimia, admitting he wanted to ‘crawl into a hole’ after the band split in 1995.

Initially Gaz enjoyed some success as a solo artist, but things took a turn for the worse and as his star waned he was forced to witness former bandmate Robbie Williams become a national treasure with hits like Angels.

“I was incredibly competitive so yeah, I think I was jealous,” admitted Gaz. “What am I going to do with the rest of my life? Because that’s it with music now. I can’t even walk down the street now . It was just so excruciating. You just wanted to crawl into a hole.”

Over eating was his way of trying to become anonymous: “There was a period of about 13 months when I didn’t leave the house once. And I also started to put weight on.

“And the more weight I put on the less people would recognise me. I thought ‘This is is good, this is what I’ve been waiting for, living a normal life.’ So I went on a mission. If the food passed me, I’d just eat it…and I killed the pop star!”

Gary’s weight problem became so severe at one point he ballooned to 17 stone before he deciding to take back control in 2003.

“I would have these nights where I’d eat and eat and eat, but however I felt about myself, I felt ten times worse the day after. One day I thought, I’ve been out, it’s 10 o’clock, I’ve eaten too much, I need to get rid of this food.

“You just go off to a dark corner of the house and just throw up, just make yourself sick. You think it’s only once and all of a sudden you’re walking down that corridor again and again – is this it? Is this what I’m going to be doing forever?”

He wasn’t the only one struggling after Take That split. Mark Owen’s confidence plummeted after being dropped by his record label and Howard Donald contemplated suicide: “I decided to go to the Thames… I was seriously thinking of jumping in. All of a sudden, fame ends or success ends, it’s a difficult pill to swallow.”

All of this was before the Goldfish bowl of social media even existed, and Take That are concerned things are even harder for today’s pop acts.

“I don’t know of any of it’s perfect, to be honest,” mused Gary. “I think there’s tough in our day and I think it’s tough now. I think there’s always challenges. You know, I don’t know. I try not and focus on the periphery things and try and think more of like, ‘you’re a songwriter, you’re a singer, you’re a band, you’re trying to get somewhere’. The rest of the other stuff, it’s to work out that thing. Shouldn’t get in the way of the art, that’s for sure.”

Barlow blames himself for the end of Take That, as he was reluctant to relinquish control and let his bandmates contribute to the music, leaving them feeling “like backing dancers and puppets”.

At the same time drink and drugs became an issue for Robbie Williams, almost overdosing the night before the 1995 MTV Europe Awards. That forced the other members to hand Rob an ultimatum and he walked out.

Did Gary discuss those difficult moments with Rob again ahead of the new documentary? “Well, do you know what, we settled all that years ago,” he replied. “I do think it’s a very different emotion watching it back, though, and actually seeing it again rather than remembering it. But no, we put all that stuff to bed a while ago. Thank God!”

Robbie has opened the door for another reunion with the lads too revealed Gaz: “At some point it’s going to happen in the future.”

In fact these days Gary and Rob are close they joined forces for a new song on his BRITPOP album called Morrissey. Has The Smiths legend responded to their musical love letter? “We’re definitely not gonna get a reply from Morrissey,” laughed Gaz. ”We wrote that a few years ago, and, yeah, I think it’s getting a good review from people, so we’re happy.“

Despite all the drama the Netflix Take That doc is a wonderful nostalgia-fest and celebration of an amazing pop journey that the band themselves have been glued to.

Mark Owen gushed: “It was like going in a time capsule, a lot of the footage I had never seen before. Initially when I sat down to watch it, they said, ‘do you want to do it in bits?’ But I just kept going, it was like ‘woah’ your life passes so fast. When it got to the end I thought ‘wow what a journey we went on’.”

Producers rummaged through an old plastic bag containing 35 years worth of unseen footage courtesy of Howard’s video camera and more to make the series. “That was one of the most surprising thing for me,” said Gaz. “How much stuff we had not seen before. I couldn’t even remember being in some of them. So for our audience who think they’ve seen it all, this will be a nice surprise.”

Take That tour the UK this summer with a new album to follow, so they hope to have many more adventures for a future fourth documentary episode.

“The story is not finished,” said Mark. “I love that fact and eventually hopefully we can do a little add on, do a directors cut with a little bit more in a few years.”

Take That is streaming on Netflix now.

Want all the biggest Showbiz and TV news straight to your inbox? Sign up for our free Daily Star Showbiz newsletter.