Take That's little devil: Was love cheat Mark Owen's misbehaviour just the tip of the iceberg?

By Nicole Lampert

Dark side: Mark Owen has admitted cheating on wife Emma with at least TEN different women


At 4am at the Mar Hall Hotel in Glasgow, Mark Owen has been drinking steadily since Take That finished their sell- out performance at the SECC arena six hours earlier.

He is standing just outside the front door having a cigarette with at least six scantily clad fans who have been hanging on his every word for the entire night.

They all want to go to his hotel room with him and he knows it. Emma, the mother of his two young children, is 400 miles away in London.

'Who wants huddles and cuddles?' he giggles before taking each of them into a tight and affectionate bear hug.

Later on, as the drinking marathon continues in the hotel bar, Mark, 38, grows uncharacteristically melancholic as he stares at the alcohol.

'Help me,' he whispers before, a few minutes later, jumping up and trying to belt out the Take That No1 Babe on the lobby piano. But the hotel management quickly remove the drunken pop star and, for the second night in a row, escort him up to his room

On that night in May 2009, he went to bed alone - but that was not always the case.

Earlier this week, the singer admitted to sleeping with at least ten other women during the course of his relationship with his actress wife Emma Ferguson.

He had sex with countless groupies. 'I don't know how many girls there were in all,' he admitted frankly.


Mark and wife Emma on their wedding day in Scotland


And he also had a five-year fling with accounts manager Neva Hanley, whom he met on the platform of Preston railway station just weeks after meeting Emma, whom he married last November.

His deception went deep. He slept with Neva, 24, just a week after his one-year-old daughter Willow Rose was born. And he slept with her again just six weeks before his lavish marriage to Emma at Cawdor Castle in Scotland.

His revelation follows hot on the heels of other infidelity scandals; John Terry, Ashley Cole, Tiger Woods. But the difference is that no one would have expected it of Mark, who really is regarded as the nicest man in pop.

Even during the height of Take That's original success in the Nineties he always found time to speak to fans, sign autographs and pose for pictures. Mark was always the one saying: 'No, it's fine, let her come over for a chat,' when his burly minders attempted to stop an enthusiastic young girl from getting to him.


Emma looked excited as she waiting to walk down the aisle to marry the Take That singer


Despite there being five members of Take That - well over 50 per cent of the fan mail was addressed to Mark.

He is the only member of the band who stayed in touch with Robbie Williams when he left. An emotional Robbie, once said of Mark: 'That boy hasn't got a bad bone in his body. There's not an ounce of wrong in him.' A sentiment his wife Emma, 33, is unlikely to agree with right now.

However, to those who follow Take That devotedly, it is not a total surprise.

'There have been rumours for some time about Mark having fun on tour,' says fan Claire Blake who has written a book about the band called Mad About The Boys. 'Certainly with Mark, people are talking about a couple of girls in Germany.

'Mark has always been very affectionate with all his fans. He likes to hold your hand, to have you sitting on his lap. He is also a big drinker - he would regularly stay up until five, six in the morning, long after the others had gone to bed - talking for hours with us. He was always very generous and everything went on his bill.

'I never really thought anything of his behaviour. It's what the band always used to do when they toured. Everyone always drank until the early hours, they always had women with them.

'When Take That were first famous they were very wild - despite their goody-goody image. They'd go up in a lift with a girl and 15 minutes later she'd be back in the lobby. Gary was always a little bit more subtle - he'd pass his room number to a girl.

'This was when they were all young and single and it was classic tour behaviour and I'm not surprised that Gary's wife Dawn has stuck to him like glue since the band's reunion.

'Gary never even came to the bar for one drink on those recent tours while Mark would be there for hours when the others were in bed.'

Mark says he felt constantly guilty about his actions but felt unable to control it. He also says he's had a drink problem for the past ten years.

But he insists he'd decided that once he was married to Emma, he would be completely faithful and had already given up the booze for her. He is rather proud that in the four months since those nuptials he has stuck to his word - but then again the band have been on a break from touring.

However, it seems it was his decision to turn over a new leaf which led to his undoing.

When he tried to end things with Neva - who he last slept with in September last year - she made her own decision about their future.

Although Mark had given her £12,000 in the last 12 months, money he insists was not hush money but a loan to a friend, she turned on him justifying her motives as 'guilt' for his family.

She alerted a newspaper, who got photographs of the pair together.


Showing the strain: A tense Mark, who has admitted to a string of affairs, arrived at his south London home earlier this week


source: dailymail