Robbie Williams' new documentary on Netflix has got everyone asking the same thing (and no, we're not here to muse about why he spent most of the series sitting about in his pants).
We want to know more about Robbie's feud with his former bandmate Gary Barlow and what their relationship is like now.
As if you need reminding, Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow were both members of Take That, the chart-topping, Manchester-born '90s pop group.
Robbie was the youngest and most rebellious of the group, having signed up for the gig at the tender age of just 16. Gary, who was very much positioned as the leader of Take That, was a few years older, aged 19.
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In Netflix's new docu-series, Robbie reflects on his time in the band, describing a sense of rivalry between himself and his older bandmate.
"I disliked Gary the most because he was the one that was supposed to have the everything, and the career," Robbie reflected during new interviews for the show. "I wanted to make him pay. I was vengeful."
Robbie wanted "the career that he was supposed to have", he said.
Despite Take That catapulting him into the public eye, Robbie was in the band for only five years, devastating fans nationwide when he announced his departure. The rest of the group disbanded the following year, and such was the outcry that a helpline had to be set up to console their young fans.
Williams embarked on his solo career in 1996, with a few singles entering the charts. But it wasn't until he met songwriter and producer Guy Chambers (who would become a long-term working partner and close friend) and the release of Angels that things really took off for his music career again.
But what happened with his relationship with Gary Barlow?
Archive footage in the documentary of one of Robbie's earlier solo gigs shows him jeering the crowd against Gary.
"I'm sorry that I treated Gary like that," he told the Netflix cameras.
In 2009, following rumours that Robbie might like to return to a newly re-formed Take That, Gary and Robbie had a very public reunion on stage at a Children In Need concert. Much to the crowd's excitement, Robbie lent his vocals — and an arm around Barlow — to a group rendition of The Beatles' hit Hey Jude.
Then, in 2010, it was announced that the pair had recorded a song together. Williams and Barlow clarified that they had ended their long-running feud 18 months before, during a meet-up in LA, while a reunited four-strong Take That were working on their album The Circus.
"I think we had a lot of guilt, the four of us, because Rob was the youngest, the most impressionable of all of us. We always felt like we didn't look after him enough," Gary said (via The Telegraph).
"It is one of those situations in life that could be very explosive and could go completely wrong," Robbie said of the meeting while debuting his and Barlow's joint single Shame.
"We had that big chat and the most amazing thing happened at the end of it. We both said sorry to each other and we both meant it and that was all we needed… It just lifted so much off my shoulders that I didn't know was still there."
"All these things had been built up for so long it just sounded stupid as it was coming out. We just needed to sit opposite each other and talk," Gary added.
"We are a bit older, a bit wiser, I think that our egos have diminished a little bit," Robbie said. "It was the start of a very magical 18 months that we had together since then, writing songs together, getting to know each other."
In a recent 2023 chat on the High Performance podcast (via Smooth Radio), Gary reflected on his relationship with Robbie – who, of course, also re-joined Take That in 2010.
Looking back to when the band first started, he conceded: "My friends were Jason and Howard. We were the older ones, we got on. Mark and Rob were always a bit removed from us — they were the younger, cooler ones, they were the naughty ones."
In his book A Different Stage, Gary confessed that he had once been envious of Robbie's courage to leave the band to pursue his own career path.
"I felt a bit jealous that I wasn't the one who'd stood up and said: 'Up yours, I wanna have some fun. I'm a pop star, I'm going to behave like one for a bit,'" he wrote, according to a 2022 report in the Daily Mail.
"None of us wanted to leave Take That," he clarified, "but watching someone else leave I — we all — couldn't help but think about taking the leap too."
In Gary Barlow's 2021 podcast for the BBC, We Write The Songs, Robbie became one of his guests. As part of the chat, they bonded over their shared "killer instinct" in song-writing.
"You can understand why a younger me and a younger you would bump heads," Robbie said. "I'd be like, 'It's my game', and you'd be like, 'No, it's my game… it's my ball'."
Robbie Williams' new documentary is available on Netflix.
TV Editor, Digital Spy Laura has been watching television for over 30 years and professionally writing about entertainment for almost 10 of those. Previously at LOOK and now heading up the TV desk at the UK's biggest TV and movies site Digital Spy, Laura has helped steer conversations around some of the most popular shows on the box. Laura has appeared on Channel 5 News and radio to talk viewing habits and TV recommendations. As well as putting her nerd-level Buffy knowledge to good use during an IRL meet with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Laura also once had afternoon tea with One Direction, has sat around the fire pit of the Love Island villa, spoken to Sir David Attenborough about the world's oceans and even interviewed Rylan from inside the Big Brother house (housemate status, forever pending).
