has reflected on his boy band days and the ‘animosity’ between himself and .
The former has released a statement about his relationship with his ex-bandmate, describing himself as ‘highly sensitive’ while admitting once again that things weren’t always rosy in the Take That camp.
Robbie, has made no secret of his turbulent relationship with Gary, 53, over the years, with the ups and downs of their friendship very well documented.
Now, the Angels hitmaker has shared a colourful sketch that he drew of Gary on .
Alongside the abstract portrait of Gary in his boy band days, Robbie wrote: ‘The animosity between me and Gary Barlow got really bad.
‘But on Christmas Day we would play football and show each other photos of our families.’
His message was seemingly a reference to the Christmas truce, the first unofficial ceasefire along the Western Front of the First World War around Christmas 1914.
At the time, French, German, and British soldiers crossed trenches to wish one another a merry Christmas and play football.
In his caption, Robbie penned: ‘Bless Gaz, he had no clue *as neither did I. That he was in a band with a highly sensitive person who would take slights and grievances inwardly to the nth degree and then turn them into napalm.
‘”HSP” Google Highly sensitive person. It makes total sense to me. That’s what I am.’
Robbie first left Take That in 1996.
At the time, he had some harsh words for the other members.
The singer branded Gary specifically a ‘clueless w***ker’ and said the group ‘had all the creativity of mentally unstable morons.’
He once fumed: ‘I hated our music and in the end, I also hated myself.’
Even in recent years, Robbie has teased that there’s more to the story of his rift with Gary.
Appearing on The One Show last year, the Let Me Entertain You vocalist was asked about his early days as a musician, ahead of the release of his Netflix documentary.
‘It’s (the documentary) about how you felt like the band, kind of, revolved around Gary, isn’t it? And your frustration,’ Alex Jones asked.
Responding, Robbie pulled an uncertain expression.
‘Well, it’s a lot of different things, he began explaining.
‘I think that’s a documentary in itself,’ he said of his ups and downs with Gary.
‘Episode 1 covers that really well, but the true, true story is yet to be told,’ he added, teasing that
‘It wasn’t so much about the whole band revolving around Gary, that was just one piece of the puzzle of why I was so deeply affected,’ the star explained.
‘I was thinking the other day, ok, so, when I was at school, I was happy-go-lucky and I was happy, I was content. How long was it before sort of, came in and everything derailed for me?
‘There’s a clipand we’re on this new Sky box and it’s two months into being in the band and I remember knowing what I was going through at the time and I was thinking, wow, it only took two months for stuff to derail so heavy for me.
‘There’s a whole heap of stuff… not just the Gary stuff…’
Robbie then said he wasn’t on the show to ‘bash’ Gary.
He also said that should there be a movie made about 2012 Robbie, modern-day Robbie would call it a ‘love letter to Gary.’
