Robbie Williams has opened up about his harrowing experience with severe malnutrition, leading to an unusual modern-day diagnosis of scurvy. The singer, 51, confessed that a drastic dieting measure involving appetite-suppressants had resulted in an impressive weight loss of nearly two stone last year. However, it came at a cost as he revealed: "I'd stopped eating and I wasn't getting nutrients."
His stark vitamin C deficiency escalated to the point that he was diagnosed with scurvy, which Robbie clarified was "a 17th century pirate disease". Reflecting on his wife Ayda's reaction to his dwindling frame, he explained: "With body dysmorphia, when people say they're worried about how you're looking, you're like, 'I've achieved it.' When people say, 'We're worried you're too thin', that goes into my head as, 'Jackpot. I've reached the promised land.'"
He also discussed enduring a bout of depression for the first time in a decade - a challenge he found particularly tough after believing he had his mental health under control. Previously diagnosed with depression in his twenties, Robbie has publicly grappled with addiction, anxiety and agoraphobia over the years.
Admitting the resurgence of his mental struggles was unexpected, he said: "The year started with some ill mental health, which I haven't had for a very, very long time. I was sad, I was anxious, I was depressed."
He elaborated to The Mirror: "It's been about ten years...I thought I was at the other end of the arc," he says. "I thought this was the end of my story, and that I would just go walking into this marvelous wonderland. So for it to return was just confusing."
Robbie is currently gearing up for a huge stadium tour, which is set to begin in Edinburgh on May 31, followed by performances in London, Manchester, Bath, and Newcastle. This comes on the heels of a whirlwind and triumphant year promoting his autobiographical film Better Man.
"I've set myself out with this giant task in my own mind of being the best entertainer on the planet," he declared regarding the tour. "And I know that sounds egoic and narcissistic, but I'm sure that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi didn't want to be the sixth best football player in the world if they were given the opportunity."
Better Man follows Robbie's life from childhood, through his years in Take That, to about 2003, the year he broke records by playing three huge gigs at Knebworth.
Throughout the film, Robbie is portrayed on screen as a monkey. "What’s more cheeky than a cheeky monkey?” he said to the Associated Press. "I’ve been a cheeky monkey all my life. There’s no more cheekier monkey than the coke-snorting, sex-addict monkey that we find in the movie."
