Gary Barlow reveals dark struggle with bulimia after Take That split
29 January 2026, 15:31
Take That's new Netflix documentary sees Gary Barlow open up about his health battle with eating disorder bulimia.
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Take That are stepping back into the spotlight as Netflix readies a new three-part documentary charting the band’s rise from five working-class lads to global icons.
The group, originally made up of Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Howard Donald, Jason Orange and Robbie Williams, have been one of Britain’s most successful boybands for over three decades.
Now, fans will get an unprecedented look inside their story with never-before-seen footage, interviews and candid reflections on fame, friendship and the fallout that followed Robbie’s shock departure in the 1990s.
In the new Netflix docuseries, which features unseen clips filmed by Howard Donald over 35 years, the band open up about their highs, lows and the moments that nearly broke them.
The series is directed by David Soutar, with the band handing over full editorial control, a bold decision for a group whose tensions have been well-documented.
In one emotional scene, Gary opens up about his long battle with bulimia following Take That’s split in 1996 and the painful rivalry that developed between him and Robbie.
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In the series, Gary shares previously unseen photographs and recalls how he struggled with fame’s aftermath. He said: “You’re the butt of the joke. It was so excruciating you just want to crawl into a hole. There was a period of 13 months where I didn’t leave the house once. I’d also started to put weight on.
“The more weight I put on, the less people would recognise me and I thought, this is good. This is what I have been waiting for. This is a normal life," Gary explained.
“So I went on this mission then — if the food went past me I would just eat it. And I’d killed the pop star. I would have these nights and I would eat and eat and eat but however I felt about myself, I felt ten times worse the day after.”
At his heaviest, Gary weighed just over 17 stone.
He told The Sun: “One day, I thought, ‘I have been out, it’s ten o’clock, I have eaten too much, I need to get rid of this food.’ You just go off to a dark corner of the house and you make yourself sick. You think it’s only once, then all of a sudden you’re walking down that corridor again and again. Is this it? Is this what I am going to be doing forever?”
By 2003, Gary began to turn his life around. “I just went, ‘No, I’m not having this any more. I’m going to change. I want to change and I’m determined that this is not who I’ve become,’” he said.
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“It only took a few years to get that low, but it took me years to get back to who I wanted to be. Ten years probably.”
Howard is equally candid in the documentary, revealing how lost he felt after the band first split.
He says: “I felt like I was the only one who didn’t grow up, even though I was the eldest. I was a nobody in school, I didn’t go to university, I didn’t think I’d do anything but I felt like a superhero up on that stage.
"It was going towards a depressive state. I decided to go to the Thames. I was seriously thinking I was going to kill myself but I was too much of a s**tbag to do it.”
Netflix has since unveiled the first official trailer for the upcoming Take That documentary, which includes rare footage of Jason Orange, who famously quit the group in 2014.
Take That | First Look | Netflix
The clip shows the camera-shy singer rehearsing with his bandmates in gothic outfits, his voice narrating over a grainy backstage moment: “We were tight amongst ourselves, I felt like we were kings of the world.”
Speaking at the premiere, Howard told The Sun: “I think it is such a true documentary. You can easily do a documentary and take out all the bits that you feel uncomfortable with — and there are quite a lot of uncomfortable bits in there."
"But it’s true of the last 35 years of Take That," he said. "There is a lot of footage people have never seen. It’s good for people to see.”
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