Robbie William's long anticipated documentary aired on Netflix this week much to the delight of the British popstar's fans. The four part series documents the ups and downs of the Rock DJ singer's life in the spotlight over the years.
The programme shows the 49-year-old's beginnings as a bright-eyed teen ready to top the charts with his Take That bandmates to his darkest days while struggling with depression and drug addiction. Robbie's troubled moments in his love life are also included in the show with his romances being just as much as a rollercoaster as his career, the Mirror reports.
One unbearable low came in the early days of him building a life for himself as a solo singer when he fell in love with All Saints singer Nicole Appleton. The couple first met while filming Top of The Pops in 1997 and after a year of dating, the Angels singer proposed.
However, their happiness together was short-lived after Nicole fell pregnant and had to make the tough decision to abort the baby. In her autobiography Together, Nicole says that four months into her pregnancy she finally gave in to her record company's demands to terminate her child.
When she first discovered she was having a baby, she told Robbie, who she said was thrilled. Writing in her book, she said "Robbie put his hand on my belly and told me, 'This baby is saving my life'" as it gave him a reason to fight his alcohol and drug addiction.
But Nicole caved into pressure from her record company as she recalled: "I couldn't believe what I had done. I wanted to kill myself. Afterwards, everyone pretended it hadn't happened."
The couple's relationship was never the same after the heartbreak caused by the abortion and Robbie admitted that Nicole's decision to come clean about it in her book had “tore him apart”.
The star who lives in LA previously told the Daily Mail: "I was completely behind her... If there's something that's so deep-rooted within yourself that you feel it would feel better to you that you exorcised it and got it off your chest because secrets can make you sick and secrets can make you feel terrible... then I'm completely behind her."
Join the Daily Record's WhatsApp community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.
He added: "It was really sad though, it was really sad. Obviously, I was gonna come back to England and there was gonna be questions like this asked, so I needed to know what was going on with it, and it really upset me and tore me apart a little bit."
Robbie also supported Nicole through her divorce to Liam Gallagher in 2013 after the Oasis star fathered a child with another woman who was US journalist Liza Ghorbani.
Speaking at the time Robbie said: "I have a very big soft spot for Nic because she’s a very decent person. I feel sorry for her as she deserves to be in a good place, in a happy marriage, and I thought she was with Liam.
"But it would appear that they weren’t. Nicole really doesn’t deserve all that from Liam. I’ve very, very fond memories of her. She’s a sweetie".
However, it seems both parties have now found their happy endings as Nicole who shares her 22-year-old son Gene with ex Liam is now married to commercial director Stephen Haines. The couple welcomed their daughter Skipper in March 2020.
Meanwhile, Robbie married actress Ayda Field in 2010 and the couple have four children together, named Theodora, 11, Charlton, nine, Colette, five and three-year-old Beau Benedict.
Top showbiz news
Robbie Williams on Netflix is available now.
Get the latest celebrity gossip and telly news sent straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily Showbiz newsletter here.
