Take That opened up about Robbie Williams’ departure from the hit band in 1995 in their new ITVX exclusive documentary, 30 Years in the Making.
The band, now made up of Gary Barlow, 52, Mark Owen, 51, and Howard Donald, 55, revealed the split was due to them all not “talking about their feelings.”
They discussed their regrets about how they wished they had talked about what The Angels lead singer felt before leaving the group.
Howard said, “Having someone close to you to talk to about your feelings is one of the things we never did in the 90s, which is why Robbie left.
“We never discussed what he felt before he left that room. We look back at that moment and think we wish we could have talked more.
Regret: Take That opened up about Robbie Williams’ departure from the hit band in 1995 in their new ITVX exclusive documentary, 30 Years in the Making
Opening: The band, now made up of Gary Barlow, 52, Mark Owen, 51, and Howard Donald, 55, revealed the split was due to them all not ‘talking about their feelings’
“I wonder if it could have saved him from leaving. It was a huge life for me to get everyone back together.”
Robbie previously revealed why he left Take That in the middle of their Nobody Else world tour, admitting he is “not proud” of the things he said during the infamous feud with Gary that followed.
In an interview last year, the Let Me Entertain You singer admitted that he was “in the middle of a nervous breakdown” when he parted ways with the boy band. out’.
Speaking to Scott Mills for BBC Radio 2’s Robbie Williams: My Life Thru a Lens, the rock DJ hitmaker spoke candidly about his highs and lows.
On why he left Take That, Robbie confessed: ‘I think I was in the middle of a nervous breakdown, my first of many. All the information going to the computer had overloaded the computer.
“Things were not going well at home, my job was not going well, and then I was new to this phenomenon of extreme fame.
‘[I was] doing my GCSEs, which I failed to do, and then suddenly being in Japan and having 3,000 fans outside and that’s the case everywhere we go.
“It was unsafe and unreal and that, mixed with what I was taking in to cope with my life and the way my body and mind are reacting to it, didn’t mix well.
‘We wish we could have talked more’: They discussed their regrets about how they wished they had talked about what The Angels singer felt before leaving the group (pictured in 1993)
Howard said, ‘Having someone close to you to talk to about your feelings is one of the things we never did in the ’90s, which is why Robbie left. We never discussed what he felt before he left that room’
“So it felt like I was in some kind of burning building and I had to get out. That’s how it felt then. And then I was like, “Okay, I’m going to do this tour and then I’m leaving.” And they were basically like, “Actually, if you’re going to leave, can you go now?”
After Robbie left the group in 1995, the other members released another single without him, but broke up the following year.
When asked if there was any chart rivalry between him and Gary Barlow in the ’90s, Robbie admitted, ‘I made sure there was.
‘Cause that’s what it was all about in the 90s. This is what happened in my camp – I say my camp, I mean my head – it’s like wrestling or boxing.
‘It’s a competition. It’s competitive. The chart itself, if you look at Top of the Pops and you had your own different teams and you think ‘Come on, go up! Oh, it’s moved down, it’s stayed!”
“And it’s your tribe against their tribe, and my tribe was me and their tribe was Gary Barlow, and I was all set for that kind of conflict because it kind of gave me a kick.
“Unfortunately, Gary didn’t feel like he was and didn’t get a kick out of it because he was a grown person who didn’t need that kind of inflammation in his life. I so wanted him to react the same way, but like I said, he’s a well-developed adult.’
After Robbie left the band, the feud between him and Gary deepened when the singer called Gary “clueless” and said the group had “all the creativity of idiots.”
Shock: Previously, Robbie revealed why he left Take That in the middle of their Nobody Else world tour, admitting he is “not proud” of the things he said during the infamous feud with Gary that followed. (Picture that in 1993)
Honest: The crooner also admitted he’s ‘not proud’ of things he said during the infamous feud with frontman Gary Barlow that followed (pictured in 2018)
Robbie enjoyed massive chart success on his own, racking up number one singles including Angels, She’s The One, Millennium and Let Me Entertain You, as well as numerous accolades.
Gary and Robbie’s relationship healed in time, with the latter even joining the band for the single The Flood and album Progress in 2010, while making several cameos in the following years.
Of their reconciliation, Robbie explained, “We are family. And it’s like a blood family for all the good and all the bad and we are intrinsically locked together on this planetary journey. All of us – me, Jay, Howard, Mark and Gaz.
“I will always be the younger brother and him [Gary] will always be the older brother. And I did things I’m not proud of and said things I’m not proud of in response to things I hope he isn’t too proud of either.
“Having said that, taking the mickey out of Gary, he didn’t deserve that.”
Asked if he ever will being a part of Take That again, Robbie replied, “Hopefully I will.”