OPENS UP ABOUT THE DARK DAYS OF FAME — AND FINDING HIS ANGEL IN WIFE AYDA
Six pairs of trainers sit lined up neatly in the hallway of Robbie Williams’s Los Angeles home. Such a simple domestic scene – one that symbolises family togetherness.
But it’s one of a few moments in the new four-part Netflix series Robbie Williams to show how far the former boyband singer has come.
Another is when the eldest of his four children, ten-year-old daughter Teddy, joins him to watch footage of one of his stadium concerts during which he suffered a terrifying panic attack in front of 90,000 people.
He gently sends her out of the room so she doesn’t have to witness what he describes as “the most traumatic episode of my life”.
FINDING PEACE
Now approaching 50 and happily married to 44-year-old LA-born actress Ayda Field Williams – who was by his side last week when the documentary premiered at the London Film Museum – Robbie has finally found peace.
“I’m a different person now, thank the Lord,” he says. “There is a happy ending – for me, anyway. I guess the God-shaped hole has been filled with four kids and my wife. Full marks.”
The series features neverbefore-seen footage covering almost three decades, following the extraordinary journey of Robbie’s life and career, from a baby-faced 16-year-old member of Take That to one of the most successful solo artists of all time.
ROCKY ROAD
Along the way, the boy from Stokeon-Trent has endured addiction, mental health problems, stints in rehab, professional fallouts, failed romances and an unhealthy relationship with fame and success, which he both craves and fears.
Filmed at his palatial home in LA – he also has houses in London and Europe – the series sees Robbie reflect on his life as he watches the footage for the first time – mostly from bed.
“I’m a hermit. If I’m not on stage I’m in bed,” he says.
Having felt that the past “has me in a deadlock”, the star is keen to “exorcise these demons” that have floored him in the past. But, he adds, it’s a “tough watch” that sees him fast-forward at times.
If there’s a heroine to the story, it’s Ayda, mother to Teddy, Charlie, eight, Coco, five, and three-yearold Beau. She and Robbie married in 2010, in a wedding covered exclusively by HELLO! that the singer described as “magical”.
Robbie added: “To be surrounded by family and close friends and then see Ayda appear looking so radiant was almost too much for me to take��
