Take That’s Gary Barlow reflects on tragic death of daughter Poppy
Gary Barlow has opened up about the devastating loss of his daughter, and how it affected his marriage.
The Take That hitmaker's daughter Poppy was heartbreakingly born stillborn at full term in August 2012, just eight days before Gary had to perform at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics.
Almost twelve years on from Poppy’s passing, Gary has now chosen to open up about his devastating loss.
During an appearance on The Imperfects podcast, the 53-year-old began by noting that he is “still kind of figuring it out a little bit.”
The Rule The World singer admitted that he was worried that Poppy’s passing would lead to a breakdown in his marriage to his wife, Dawn.
“My wife's emotions were completely different to mine. I've been angry for a long time about that, I haven't really found peace with it yet,” he confessed.
“We had a worrying statistic when it happened to us, something like 95 percent of couples split up when something like that happens to them. I think it comes down to men deal with it differently than the women do. My wife does far better than I do, she's a much stronger person than I am. She's really been amazing throughout it,” he praised.
Reflecting on his three older children – son Daniel (22), and daughters Emily (19) and Daisy (13) – Gary explained how Poppy’s stillbirth affected the whole family.
“We're one of the lucky couples because for us it's brought us ever closer together, and we do have three other children as well and that's helped us,” he detailed.
“The youngest one wasn't affected at all by it, but the older two still talk about it a lot. It's a highly complex thing that none of us should ever have to go through,” Gary stated.
“I guess it's made me stronger, I think so. I think things like that have to, don't they? There was definitely a point where I wondered if we'd ever be back to where we were before, but I think we have got there,” he concluded.
