Oh, Jason Orange. The most orange of all the Oranges (that once were) in Take That. What are we going to do with you, eh?
The painter-and-decorator-turned-boyband-star-turned-man-band-legend broke hearts up and down the country on Wednesday when he announced he was leaving one of the biggest pop groups of all time, leaving Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald to go on as a trio.
J-Dawg told the rest of the band months ago that he just wasn’t really into getting himself caught up in a gruelling promotional schedule for their next album and insisted he hadn’t fallen out with his fellow bandmates.
But the group’s former manager Nigel Martin-Smith, who originally formed the band in 1989, claims there’s more to J’s departure than meets the eye – he apparently simply wants more attention.
Nigel, who was not appointed manager of the band the second time around, told The Sun: “I have never told my Take That story and am only speaking now because I think that Jason’s behaviour is deplorable.
“This is about him wanting attention. He never did like all the fuss when Robbie rejoined.”
Robbie Williams originally left the band in 1995 but joined Take That 2.0 in 2010 and extracted some vocals from his throat and carefully laid them down for their album Progress.
Nigel continued: “Jason was always very jealous of Rob’s talent and popularity. They didn’t get on at all and it was Jason who engineered Robbie leaving.
“Jason leaving has been on the cards since the band reformed. It’s not common knowledge but it was my idea to get the band back together and Jason was never keen. I co-produced the ITV Take That documentary in 2005 and Jason was a nightmare.
“After the film went out I started planning the tour and Jason was on the phone telling me he didn’t know if he wanted to be in the band.”
However, Nigel insists Jason will re-join the band AGAIN when he sees the remaining three go on to even greater success.
Right, well, what a mess...