Gary Barlow's three children are towering over him now they're older, with the dad-of-three recently sharing how "proud" he is of his kids that he shares with "special" wife Dawn.
The 53-year-old has been married to Dawn for 25 years, and the couple share three children, Daniel, 24, Emily, 22, and Daisy, 15. But although he's one of the biggest names in the music industry, the Cheshire-born Take That star is a family man, first and foremost.
The couple's eldest, Daniel, was born just months after their lavish Caribbean wedding in January 2000, but now he's 24, he towers above his famous dad, at 6ft 2. X Factor judge Gary shared a rare snap of his son in support of him completing his first Ironman competition.
The challenge took place in Tenby in Wales and includes a gruelling 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run, with participants given a maximum of 17 hours to complete the full race, with specific cut-off times for each element of the event. A proud Gary shared his son's achievement on Instagram, writing: "We just couldn't be prouder of our boy - unbelievable amounts of training and determination - when you put in the work you get the results."
He added: "Congratulations #ironman." Gary previously shared a video of the two doing bicep curls next to each other, writing: "There’s nothing I love more than spending time with my kids. Here’s a little video of Dan and me having a Father and Son training session. I’m very proud of my boy and his commitment to his fitness. Don’t look at the difference in weights. Don’t notice that I’m stood a little further forward to make the size gap smaller. Lol."
His second child, Emily, is a student, and Gary doesn't hesitate to tell her how much he loves her. In one sweet post for her 17th birthday, Gary wrote a moving message, telling his daughter: "To my gorgeous Emily - wishing you a very Happy 17th Birthday. I love you so much and I’m so proud of how hard you’re working at school. You’re an amazing daughter and the very best Sister."
When Emily decided to head off to uni for four years in 2022, he shared a gushing post after the family had shared New Year abroad. He wrote: "Just home from a lovely break. We said goodbye to our Emily who goes off to Uni for four years! [crying face emoji] But we all had fun - relaxed and now ready for another crazy year!!!!!"
Speaking to Zoe Ball on her Radio 2 show at the time, he explained that Covid had stopped her original plans for uni. He said of his kids: "They are pretty good, one is at university. One is taking a year off, was meant to be going to uni but she doesn't want to with all this going, on which I completely understand. Our youngest is 11 now, which is like… well they're not kids really anymore. Although, they always are to us."
The couple's youngest child, Daisy is at school, with the 15-year-old sharing a close bond with her dad. In a cute post from 2018, the Patience hitmaker shared how he was spending quality time with the baby of the family. He wrote: "I’ve not seen enough of my little Daisy this year. Looking forward to 5 whole weeks together now. Can’t believe our youngest child is 9 going on 40. I’m holding on to her as tight as I can."
More recently, Gary shared a photo of him and his two daughters, the proud dad beaming with an ear-to-ear smile. He simply captioned it: "My girls," followed by three love heart emojis. The family suffered a heartbreaking loss in 2012, when they lost little Poppy on August 4th, after she was delivered stillborn at full term. Gary admitted he knows he'll never get over the tragic loss of their baby, confessing earlier this year: "I haven't really found peace with it yet."
Speaking on The Imperfects podcast, Gary spoke candidly about his family tragedy as he explained: 'I don't talk about this in great detail and I literally don't because I'm still kind of figuring it out a little bit. 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 admitted that he feared Poppy's death would cause ruptures in his marriage to Dawn, but said the couple were closer as a result of their painful time. He added: "I 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."
But despite being married to one of the most famous men in the world, Dawn shies away from the limelight, with Gary describing how much love he has for his "special" partner. He added: "She's really special, really special. She's a no nonsense mum. She brought our kids up, I don't. I do this job which is bloody all encompassing, I travel all round the world, she gave up her job to bring our kids up. Left her dreams to one side and I got to do mine still. She's done a brilliant job, everyone who meets our kids always says how great they are. She's a wonderful woman, she's pretty tough on me, I've got to be honest."
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