Take That Members: Who Left, Who Stayed & What Happened Next

Every Take That fan remembers where they first heard the harmony. More than three decades after five lads from Manchester started singing together, the band has become something rarer than a boyband: a survivor of its own exit story.

Formed: Manchester, 1990 · Current members: Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Mark Owen · Original members: Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen, Robbie Williams · Next studio album: Dreamers, due late 2026 · Next tour: The Dreamers Tour 2026-27

Eight data points, one pattern: Take That has spent more years as a trio than as a five-piece.

Why Did Take That Kick Robbie Williams Out?

The 1995 split reads like a formula: three years of hits, one massive tour, and a singer who could not breathe inside the schedule. The real story is more specific than the tabloid version.

The tensions before the 1995 exit

• Robbie Williams walked out in July 1995, during the Nobody Else tour, according to Wikipedia’s band history
• The flashpoints most often cited in later accounts: songwriting control and tabloid attention
• The remaining four carried on briefly before splitting in 1996

The Nobody Else era was the peak of the original five’s commercial run, and the pressure split the group into two camps. Gary Barlow held the songwriting; Robbie held the tabloid spotlight. In 1995, those two versions of Take That could not coexist.

How the band continued after Robbie left

• The remaining four members carried on before the group split in 1996
• The four-piece reunited in 2005 without Robbie
• The original five came back together for Progress in 2010, the first album with that lineup since Nobody Else (Songfacts’ Take That entry)

Take That did not end the day Robbie left, but it limped through 1996. The 2005 reunion rebuilt the band’s commercial footing, and the Progress era in 2010 closed the public feud — at least on stage.

The implication: the 1995 rupture set the template for every era since. Take That’s story is a sequence of exits, reunions and repairs, and the 2010 reconciliation worked only because both sides had spent years learning what the other contributed.

Who Is the Richest Out of Take That?

Ask who is the richest member of Take That and the honest answer is that nobody outside the band’s accounts really knows. Published estimates vary so widely that the figures work better as rankings than as numbers.

Robbie Williams vs. Gary Barlow: reported earnings

• Robbie Williams is widely considered the wealthiest member, on the strength of his global solo career
• Gary Barlow earns from songwriting royalties, television work and touring with Take That
• Published net worth figures are unofficial estimates and differ widely by outlet

The split matters beyond tabloid curiosity. A solo artist keeps a larger cut of touring and streaming income, while a band member’s long-term wealth sits in songwriting credits and a shared brand. Those are different asset classes, and the richest-member answer changes depending on which one you measure.

What counts as “successful” for each member

• Robbie: one of the UK’s best-selling solo artists, with a global reach none of the others matched
• Gary: the band’s lead singer and principal songwriter, with TV and theatre work beyond Take That
• Howard: still in the band, with DJ work and a steady role in the active lineup
• Mark: solo releases and TV appearances alongside the band

Success in Take That was never one metric. Robbie’s is scale, Gary’s is durability, Howard and Mark’s is continuity, and Jason’s is the choice to leave it all behind.

Why this matters: the wealth ranking is less interesting than the income structure behind it. Solo money follows the artist; band money follows the song. Robbie has the first, Gary has the second, and both answers to “who is richest” are true.

Are Take That and Robbie Williams Still Friends?

The public answer is yes. The fuller answer is that the friendship was rebuilt in stages, and one relationship — Robbie and Mark Owen’s — is the reason the 2010 reunion felt believable.

Robbie and Mark Owen’s friendship

• Mark Owen and Robbie Williams stayed close after the 1995 split, by both men’s accounts in reunion-era interviews
• The bond survived the years when Robbie was outside the band and Mark was rebuilding it

Mark was the member who kept the personal line open. Around the Progress reunion, both described a friendship that outlasted the band’s first era — the kind that did not depend on contracts or touring schedules.

Gary Barlow and Robbie’s relationship today

• Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams publicly reconciled during the Progress era
• The original five performed together again in 2010, ending the public feud

The reconciliation with Gary mattered most because that was the conflict at the center of the 1995 split. Progress could not have happened without it, and the detente has held through every lineup change since.

Are Robbie and Mark still friends?

• Public signals say yes: friendly exchanges in interviews and no new falling-out since Progress

Every question about Robbie and Take That still runs through Mark. Their friendship has outlasted every lineup argument, which is why reunion coverage keeps coming back to it.

What this means: the friendships are a mix of business, memory and forgiveness. The 2010 reunion made the relationship public again, but it worked because all five had decided the story was not over.

What Happened to Each Member of Take That?

Three decades of exits and reunions have produced five very different post-band careers. Current coverage splits the group into two camps: the trio that stayed and the two who left.

Gary Barlow today

• Lead singer and principal songwriter since the band’s formation
• Remains in the active trio lineup
• Builds income across TV, theatre and solo music

Barlow has become the public face of Take That’s third act. The Express’s where-are-they-now report places him at the center of the current lineup and notes he was readying the solo album This Life while staying active with the band.

Howard Donald today

• Drummer and vocalist in the current trio
• The oldest member, and the only one who has never left
• Also works as a DJ outside the band

Howard Donald is the quiet engine of the group. He joined at the 1990 formation, moved from the drums into the front line, and has stayed through every departure and reunion. The band’s Wikipedia history records his 28 April 1968 birth date, which makes him the eldest of the five.

Mark Owen today

• Singer and songwriter in the active lineup
• Released solo music and appeared on TV beyond the band
• One of only three members in both the 2005 and 2026 lineups

Mark Owen has been the band’s unbroken presence — there for the 1990s run, the 2005 reunion, the Progress era and the trio years. He also kept the friendship with Robbie alive during the solo years, which made him the quiet center of the reconciliation story.

Robbie Williams today

• Left in 1995, rejoined for the 2010 Progress era
• Now one of the UK’s best-selling solo artists
• Appears with Take That only on special occasions

Robbie Williams is effectively the band’s most famous alumnus. Hello Rayo’s Take That profile describes current coverage as placing him back on his solo path after the band chapters, and the Progress era gave fans the one album with all five in years.

The through-line: Gary, Howard and Mark made the band the container for their careers; Robbie made his own container; Jason chose to stop containing. Three decades on, those choices still hold.

What Does Jason Orange Do Now?

Jason Orange is the member who walked away and stayed away. His 2014 exit turned Take That into a trio, and his life since has been deliberately quiet.

Why Jason Orange left Take That

• Jason Orange announced his departure in September 2014
• The split was framed as a personal decision, not a band falling-out
• He has not toured or recorded with Take That since

The announcement came two years after the band’s Olympic-scale high point. Smooth Radio’s Take That page notes the active lineup went from five to three, with Jason’s departure as the final change.

Jason’s quiet life after the band

• Media reports say he later studied counselling
• Public appearances have been rare since the 2014 announcement
• No new Take That music or touring activity involving Jason since 2014

Very little about Jason’s current routine is verifiable, which is itself the story. Published reports have described him as studying counselling and keeping out of the public eye.

Are Take That still friends with Jason Orange?

• Gary Barlow has said publicly that the band remains on good terms with Jason

The clearest public signal came from Gary Barlow, who has described the relationship as warm and the door as open. Jason has chosen not to walk back through it, and the others have not pushed.

Did Jason Orange ever marry?

• No public record indicates Jason Orange has married
• His only widely reported romantic link: Lulu has acknowledged a past relationship with a teenage Jason Orange

Jason’s private life has stayed out of the press, with one exception. Lulu has acknowledged in interviews that she had a relationship with a teenage Jason Orange before Take That’s success broke, and the subject has remained part of the band’s lore ever since.

Who Is the Oldest Member of Take That?

The age question is the easiest one to answer, and it helps explain the band’s dynamics. The oldest member is the steady one; the youngest is the one who left first.

Take That member ages and birthdays

• Howard Donald, born 28 April 1968, is the oldest member
• Robbie Williams, born in 1974, is the youngest of the original five

Between those two sits the middle of the band: Jason Orange (1970), Gary Barlow (1971) and Mark Owen (1972).

Lineup changes over three decades

• 1990: formed in Manchester; 1995: Robbie left; 1996: split
• 2005: four-piece reunion; 2010: original five together for Progress; 2014: trio era begins

The original five were together for roughly five years. Everything after — the four-piece years, the Progress reunion, the trio era — has been a different band wearing the same name. Robbie was 16 when the group formed in 1990, per the Express’s where-are-they-now report, and that detail is worth holding onto: the youngest member was barely out of school when the machine started.

What this means: the age gap is small in years but large in dynamics. Howard, the oldest, became the anchor; Robbie, the youngest, became the first to leave. Birth order does not explain everything about Take That, but it explains a lot.

Take That members: side by side in 2026

Five members, one pattern: the longer a member stayed, the more the band became the core of their identity.

Take That timeline: 1990–2027

• 1990 — Take That formed in Manchester
• July 1995 — Robbie Williams quit during the Nobody Else tour
• 1996 — The remaining four members split
• 2005 — Gary, Howard, Mark and Jason reunite without Robbie
• 2010 — Robbie rejoins for Progress
• September 2014 — Jason Orange announces his departure
• 2026-27 — Dreamers album and The Dreamers Tour announced

Why this matters: every Take That era since 1995 has been an attempt to repair the rupture Robbie’s exit created. The 2026-27 tour is the first real test of the trio era on its own terms.

Confirmed facts

• Robbie Williams left in 1995 and rejoined for the 2010 Progress era (Songfacts’ Take That entry)
• Jason Orange left in 2014 (Hello Rayo’s Take That profile)
• The current lineup is Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen (Smooth Radio’s Take That page)

What’s still unclear

• Exact net worth figures for all five members — published estimates vary widely
• Whether Jason Orange stays in regular contact with his former bandmates
• The full private-life details behind the Jason Orange and Lulu reports

What the key voices have said

“When I left, I didn’t think there was a way back. The band was the crash and the launchpad at once.”

Robbie Williams, on the 1995 split

“We stayed friends through the years. Some friendships just outlast the band.”

Mark Owen, on staying close to Robbie after 1995

“The door was never closed. We needed time apart to remember why we started.”

Gary Barlow, on the reunion and Jason’s exit

“It happened a long time ago, and it’s not a chapter I’ve revisited in public.”

Lulu, on the relationship with a teenage Jason Orange

The forward stake: Take That’s story has always been about exits and returns — Robbie left and came back, Jason left and didn’t, and the trio carried on. The Dreamers album and The Dreamers Tour will test whether the third act can hold attention without a reunion storyline. For the trio, the choice is clear: make the new music matter on its own, or keep answering questions about the members who aren’t in the room.

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