Howard Donald has been left red-faced after being tricked into sharing an edited picture of himself posing with David Bowie.
The singer posted the snap to his Instagram on Saturday, alongside a gushing tribute to the time he met the late legendary musician - despite the snap being very obviously photoshopped.
"I was just gonna put this on my stories but then I though this is much more worthy of the main feed," he captioned the photo, which showed him and fellow Take That star Mark Owen grinning into the camera as Bowie rests his arms on their shoulders.
"For sure I was very nervous meeting @davidbowie as I'm not so comfortable around other famous people and can get star struck quite easily, but he was so normal and down to earth which made me feel at ease. Plus it was an opportunity I was never gonna miss and so glad I had the balls to ask."
Howard went on: "Will there ever be anyone as musically talented as the man himself? And also someone that changed fashions and music styles like nobody else.
"Doubt it! Was a pleasure Mr Bowie. X," he added.
Fans instantly jumped into the comments section to point out the picture was fake - but Howard is yet to address them.
"Ummmmmm.....this is an edited picture, howard," wrote one.
"Although it's photoshopped pic your words are lovely," said another, to which a third replied: "How are they lovely when it's a fake photo with a completely made up background story?"
The fan account that created the faked image wrote on his Instagram: "I'm so glad you like it Howard."
It's not clear on which occasion Howard did meet Bowie, but the original unedited picture appears to have been taken in September 2015 at the launch of the Finding Neverland musical in New York.
Bowie's face seems to have been superimposed on Gary Barlow's, who was originally in the snap with Howard and Mark.
Howard has never been shy about his admiration for the London-born icon, having named his son Bowie Taylan when his wife Katie Halil give birth in 2015.
It comes after Howard vowed to come off Twitter after revealing some questionable views about vaccines during lockdown.
After being accused of being an antivaxxer, the singer tweeted: "Well I love trees and I love them because they produce oxygen of course!! Vaccines are questionable! Especially when it's vaccinating the world for pure profit. Do u think bill gates wants to save the world or does he wants to make a couple more billion?"
He followed that up with: "I think I'm gonna delete Twitter for a few weeks before I really say what I think. not saying things to wind people up,I'm just saying it because there is a bigger picture behind this and if we don't educate,humans will have freedoms taken away. I Care for humans,especially kids."
