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As the proud father of three children, it’s no surprise that Gary Barlow has shared praise for his family,
But, the Take That star may have unknowingly sparked a viral frenzy, after a sweet family photo that showed his son towering over him sent social media into meltdown.
Gary, 53, tends to keep his personal life out of the spotlight, but the family photo posted on Instagram went viral online as a light-hearted tweet featuring it was viewed more than six million times.
The singer had originally shared the image back in June in honour of Father’s Day, and noted at the time that it was rare for him to post images of his family.
The snap showed Gary, his son Daniel, and youngest daughter Daisy, 15, with his wife of 25 years Dawn Andrews, during a recent holiday.
Gary Barlow’s innocent praise for his son Daniel in an Instagram post has unknowingly sparked a viral frenzy, after the image showed his eldest child towering over him
In the caption, Gary innocently praised his son for staying away from the limelight, writing: ‘Father’s Day is the one day I think I’m allowed to post pics of the fam hey???’
Barlow – who throughout his career has reportedly raked in a whopping £90million fortune – barely reaches his son’s shoulder in the wholesome photo.
After the image resurfaced on X earlier this week, a light-hearted tweet featuring it was viewed more than six million times.
Memes have since flooded the internet with jokes about Daniel’s height – but in reality, the 24-year-old is only a few inches taller than the average British man.
The average height for a man in the UK is 5’9, and 5’3 for a woman.
Daniel, who is pursuing a career in medicine, comes in at an impressive 6’2, but seems taller next to his ‘short king’ father.
Famous dad Barlow is only a few inches shorter than average, at 5’7.
The father-and-son duo had their arms around each other in the picture, posted shortly after Barlow celebrated his son’s achievement completing the Ironman competition, which saw him tackle a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run.
The singer originally praised his son for staying out of the limelight, but after the snap was reposted on X, it sparked a sea of memes reacting to Daniel’s height
Memes have since flooded the internet with jokes about Daniel’s height
He wrote: ‘We just couldn’t be prouder of our boy – unbelievable amounts of training and determination – when you put in the work you get the results. Congratulations #ironman.’
But the photo went viral, with many commenting ‘Gary Barhigh’ below.
Memes compared the picture to a scene in the Christmas movie Elf, where human-sized Buddy struggles to fit in at the North Pole because everything is too tiny for him.
Another captioned ‘Gary Barlow’s son looking at all these memes about him on Twitter’ above a picture of a tiny model of a phone.
It was held in a hand which looks huge in comparison.
Another read: ‘Gary Barlow asking his son for a cuddle before bed’, showing the Take That star on stage with his arms spread wide above him.
Others posted photos of the celebrity with items which could be seen as clothing – such as a check pattern wall – captioned: ‘Gary Barlow standing in front of his son’s new cardigan.’
Back in 2022, Gary shared another rare snap of his towering son to celebrate his 22nd birthday
Gary previously revealed that his children are so different to him and despite his own success, have shown no interest in showbiz (pictured with daughters Daisy, R and Emily, L)
References were also made to how 6’2 Donald Trump’s son Barron – who is 18-years-old – also towers over him at an impressive height of 6’7.
Back in 2022, the singer shared another rare snap of his towering son for his 22nd birthday.
He wrote: ‘Happy 22nd Birthday to our Dan. We love you mate and you make us so proud every day’.
He has his arm around Daniel’s waist, with his head barely above his shoulder.
Barlow shares his three children with wife Dawn, a backup dancer who was on tour with Take That in 1995 and who he married in 2000.
The hitmaker previously said spoke about how his children are so different to him and have shown no interest in showbiz, opting instead for academic careers.
He told The Mirror: ‘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.
‘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, Barlow 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.’
The Barlows sadly lost their 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, the singer 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.’