Gary Barlow lifts the lid on his drunken first kiss with wife Dawn Andrews - as he admits they worked together for years before embarking on romance

Gary Barlow has lifted the lid on his first kiss with his wife Dawn Andrews, as he revealed he plucked up the courage after a drunken night out.

The Take That star, 53, delved into his 24-year marriage to the former dancer on the Table Manners podcast with Jessie and Lennie Ware on Wednesday.

Speaking about dating Dawn - who he wed in 2000 and shares children Daniel, 24, Emily, 22 and Daisy, 15, with - Gary revealed their first kiss was in the back of a van after a night out.

'We were in Manchester, and we'd been to a club, and we're all piled in this van on the way home,' he said.

'We were in the very back of this van, and we were sitting right next to each other, had my arm around her and I just thought, this is it kids, I'm going in.'

Gary also revealed that he and Dawn had worked together for years before they embarked on a romantic relationship.

Asked about how they met, Gary said: 'Oh, she was a dancer. I met her first in 1988 when I'd been brought in to do this really terrible video by Virgin at the time, which had off shoots around the country, and there's two dancers on that. She was one of them.

'And so we met then just for the day, never thought anything more of it. Then bumped into her over the years, at Top of the Pops and the Royal Variety performances and things, and then we did a tour in like 95 where we had like 20 dancers.'

It comes after Gary revealed why his children have chosen not to follow in his famous footsteps in a rare comment about his family.

Speaking to The Mirror , Gary said that his children are so different to him and despite his own success, have shown no interest in showbiz, opting instead for academic careers.

Saying: 'The two oldest ones [Daniel and Emily] have kind of gone into medicine and physiology - studying strength and conditioning - and my youngest one, Daisy, I'm not too sure what she's heading for but again, she's very studious... unlike me and my wife,' he says.

'I don't think they will follow in my music footsteps but I wouldn't have discouraged them though if they did want to, it's been a good business for me.

'Every day I still enjoy what I do and when you realise you're making a living from it, it's a great, great place to be. Many roles in "showbiz" are just wonderful, there's definitely a much harder world out there than the one I'm in I think.'

The Shine hitmaker has previously opened up about how 'proud' he was of Emily after she decided to head off to university in 2022 for a four-year course.

The youngster had initially planned to go onto higher education in 2020, but had her plans scuppered by COVID-19.

At the time, Gary told Zoe Ball on her BBC radio show: '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.'

On a more sombre note, Gary and Dawn lost baby Poppy in 2012 when she arrived stillborn and he recently admitted that he 'hadn't 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.'