Love Cheat Howard Donald

The 'Rule The World' vocalist had an eight-month affair with married Dutch woman Merith Van Onselen, behind the back of his then-partner Marie Christine Musswesseles.

Merith first met Howard in 2008 when he was working as a DJ at a Berlin club, and after wooing her with emails and text messages they met up in Amsterdam and the UK from January last year for passionate romps, unbeknown to both their partners. The revelation comes in the same week bandmate Mark Owen admitted to 10 affairs behind the back of his now-wife.

Merith told the News Of The World newspaper: "He said to me he was worried about what I was telling my husband. He told me we shouldn't throw ourselves in too deep to start with but I think we were both frustrated after all the texts and emails. So even though we wanted to take it slowly, we just couldn't help ourselves.

"I'm glad I made sure I was wearing some sexy knickers because as soon as we got into his house he took off my clothes and slowly kissed me.

"I think we both felt it was right. Howard spoke a lot about feeling guilty about Marie. He was so confused and kept saying to me, 'Look at the big picture, you are married and I am still in a relationship'."

Howard, 41, later introduced Merith, 28, to the rest of Take That – which also includes Gary Barlow and Jason Orange – and even the mother of his first daughter, Victoria Piddington, although their relationship cooled in autumn last year after he said he had to think of his children. By the end of 2009 Merith had filed for divorce from her husband and Howard had split with Marie.

Meanwhile, Mark's wife and mother to his two children, Emma Owen, has revealed the extent of her devastation at her husband's cheating saying: "I don't know the man I've married – this isn't him," and telling friends she needs at least a week to decide whether their five month marriage is worth saving. Mark has meanwhile checked into rehab for alcohol abuse.

A friend of his wife said: "Emma is absolutely mortified and as things stand she doesn't think she can take Mark back. The sheer scale of the betrayal is so huge.