Mark Owen's Factfile

Early Days
When he was a kid, Mark really wanted to be a professional footballer. "But I wasn’t quite good enough. I played right midfield and had trials with Huddersfield and Rochdale. My local team were once asked to play Manchester United’s youth team because the local scout was interested in a few of us. We went to their training ground and got hammered 14-1. We had a bath and went home with a United towel each.”

After school, came a brief career in Barclays Bank and a job in Strawberry Studios in Stockport where Mark met Gary Barlow and "Take That" was born. “We were 18-24 year old guys and we just did what guys do. If you met someone, good, if you didn’t, you just drank more. We just had a laugh.”

Take That split up in February 1996 after 6 years, signing off with The Bee Gee’s classic "How Deep Is Your Love?" The break up made the "News at Ten" and telephone lines were set up to counsel distraught teenagers.


Did You Know?

Mark was voted three times "Most Fanciable Male in The World" by "Smash Hits". “Smash Hits actually give me a little trophy. I’m gonna save it to prove to my kids in 20 years time I used to be sexy. I’ll be like ‘Yeah, I used to pull the girls.’”

In 2000 Mark said he was extremely envious of Robbie. “To be honest, I am absolutely gutted by the success that Robbie has had. Not because I don’t like the guy, but because there’s always a part of me that thinks if I had played my cards right it could have been me!”

Mark performed with Robbie at his recent Knebworth gigs and for the first time in seven years they shared a stage and performed a duet of "Back For Good".


Cool Credentials

If he had to go on Celebrity Big Brother again, Mark's ideal housemates would be Anthony Hopkins, footballer Steven Gerrard, actress Julianne Moore and Winona Ryder (whom he’s always had a crush on!)

When he was 12, Mark went to the Bobby Charlton Football School.

Mark has a dog called Hootie.