Let me enlighten you! - THE TRUTH ABOUT ROBBIE'S PAST

Plagued by addiction and anxiety, the singer opens up about the cost of fame

- Judy Kean

Robbie Williams is undisputedly an incredible entertainer – as the 50,000 Kiwis who saw him perform at Mission Estate in Hawke’s Bay last month will attest.

But behind the flamboyant onstage performances and the string of hit songs that have made him one of the world’s most successful popstars is a man who has struggled with the downsides of fame.

Now the British star has given fans a warts-and-all look at what his life has been like since the boy band he was part of, Take That, became hugely popular in the 1990s. In his Netflix documentary series Robbie Williams, he confronts his demons by watching hours of behind-the-scenes footage of him filmed over three decades – much of which he hadn’t previously seen – and talks about what he was going through at the time.

He acknowledges what’s happened since he found fame as a teenager is astounding but adds, “It feels as if the past has me in a headlock. I’m trying to sort out the wreckage.”

Reflecting on events of the past 30-plus years for the documentary has been one way of “exorcising those demons”, he says.

Robbie, 49, was only 16 when he successfully auditioned for Take That, intended to be a British version of New Kids on the Block. They became phenomenally successful in the UK, with a string of number-one hits, but life in the spotlight quickly took a toll on Robbie, the youngest member.