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When Corden Met Barlow: Gary Barlow speaks in depth about his stillborn daughter for the first time

The Take That singer discusses his loss on a documentary with James Corden

Ella Alexander
Tuesday 06 May 2014 12:11 BST
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Gary Barlow spoke for the first time last night about the stillbirth of his daughter, Poppy.

Gary Barlow spoke for the first time last night about the stillbirth of his daughter, Poppy.

The musician told James Corden on a BBC documentary that his single, Let Me Go, was inspired by his loss in August 2012. His father, Colin Barlow, died three years before in 2009.

“It keeps a life and a flame in the whole thing,” Barlow tells Corden. “It's not my voice, it's someone else's.

”I don't like there to be things that are unsaid really... And from that thing happening to my dad's passing, there's a lot of them in this record with me.”

He said that the track was a “celebration” of his late daughter.

“It should be a celebration, that song, because in some respects, it's alive, that record and those lyrics, and what it relates to,” he explained, before bringing conversation to a close.

”There's a point where I'll stop in respect to my wife,” he said.

Barlow also discussed his battle with depression and how it led to severe weight gain, for which he was at the time ridiculed for in the media. At one point, the star weighed 17 stone.

“Problem was for me, is I hit 25, my career went out the window, and it was like 'How do I just change everything, how do I change the way I look?’” he said.

“It was almost like a protest for me,” he explained of his deliberate weight gain.

“I knew what I was doing. I was enjoying it. And I enjoyed the fact no-one recognised me.”

But he has since moved on and refuses to wallow in his former problems.

“I don't want to dwell on it too much, like 'Feel sorry for me', but it was s***. It's s*** to be you. You don't want to be that person,” he said.

“You want to be the one laughing about the person the jokes about.”

His words have been praised by mental illness charity Mind on Twitter, who encouraged the public to watch the show.

Other high-profile names to have voiced their appreciation for the show, which sparked a Twitter trend last night, including posts from One Direction’s Niall Horan and Pixie Lott.

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