I've had a drink problem for ten years - but Robbie is helping me through it, says Take That love cheat Mark Owen

By Sara Nathan and Scott Warren

House of pain: Mark Owen and wife Emma return home to try to repair their shattered marriage


Former alcoholic bandmate Williams helping him to get back on his feet

Admits he was a heavy cannabis user and still smokes joints

Mark Owen has opened up about the slide towards alcoholism that has secretly plagued him for a decade.

As he held crisis talks with wife Emma following revelations he'd cheated on her with ten women, the Take That star, 38, admitted his battle with the bottle had caused him to be 'a prat'.

He told of a drinking problem that took hold when he moved to the Lake District when the boy band split in the 90s, but said he wasn't blaming alcohol for causing his philandering.


'I am not using the drink as an excuse,' he told The Sun.


Strain: Mark Owen's wife Emma wasn't wearing her wedding ring as the couple returned to their south London home yesterday

'I've been living with the guilt. Maybe the drink was my way of dealing with the guilt, I don't know... it hasn't helped, but I'm not blaming everything on it.

'His 33-year-old wife had demanded he get help, and Owen has sought professional therapy as well as the support of his bandmates Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Jason Orange.

Former Take That singer Robbie Williams, no stranger himself to alcoholism, has also spoken to Owen.

He said: 'I told the lads a few weeks ago that I am trying to deal with a drink problem. I spoke to Rob about it, too. I've always tried not to involve anyone else, including the boys. Maybe the lads might have suspected sometimes.'

Owen told how following the revelation, Donald told him that when he had been drinking he 'sways' and is incoherent, 'so they were all aware I got myself into a state'.

When Take That first split in 1996, Owen escaped the limelight by moving to the Lake District to work on solo material, but soon found himself downing bottle after bottle of white wine.

'When I was up in the Lakes, living there for all those years on my own, I used to just drink every night.

'I carried on drinking through my relationship with Emma and it got to the point where she asked me to stop


Tense: Mark showed the strain after admitting to his string of affairs

'I've never liked drinking during the day, but once the kids went to bed, I'd get the bottle open and off I went

'I have been a prat. I'm not the person I want to be when I'm drunk. I can be a nightmare to live with.'

Owen spoke as he and Emma were holed up in their Wandsworth, south London, home dealing with the fallout of his infidelity admissions.

Friends of the couple say it is 'too early' to tell if the marriage can be saved.


Crisis talks: The couple, who have two children together, quickly headed inside the marital home

The pair have two children - Elwood, three, and Willow Rose, one - but only wed last October after a courtship of five years.

One of Owen's affairs, with accounts manager Neva Hanley, 24, carried on for most of that time, with the lovers sharing a final night together just weeks before his wedding


source: dailymail