Robbie Williams shares intimate footage of his romances in Netflix doco

Sophie Ellis-Bextor has shared a heartfelt message reflecting on her “horrid” sledging of Robbie Williams, which resurfaced in his raw Netflix documentary.

British pop star Sophie Ellis-Bextor has been copping it since a brutal Robbie Williams sledge resurfaced in his raw Netflix documentary.

And now she has responded after being swamped by messages from his outraged fans, revealing she had already apologised to the Rock DJ superstar “a few years back” and they had become good friends, who had also written music together.

The pair had a bit of beef back in the 90s when the Murder On The Dancefloor chart-topper knocked back the support slot on his first solo tour and branded him a “tart” and a “prat” in the British media.

Singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

He responded with the vicious sledge that she had “a face like a satellite dish and my nan’s ankles.”

In the Netflix documentary, a clip of a 1998 interview shows Ellis Bextor chiming in during a Williams sledgefest hosted by British radio star Jo Whiley.

‘To me he hasn’t got any charm about him, why people embrace him, I find it baffling and it makes me a bit sad really,” she said in the 25-year-old clip.

Robbie Williams.

In a heartfelt video and Instagram post over the weekend, Ellis-Bextor said she had “genuinely felt crappy about how I spoke”, when she was just 19, and wanted to own her mistake.

“In 1998, aged 19, I was very rude about Robbie Williams and the clip of me being horrid is included in his brilliant Netflix documentary. I didn’t need to see it again to feel bad. I genuinely have felt crappy about how I spoke for the 25 years since I said it,” she wrote.

“I thought it was clever to be gobby back then but it wasn’t cool then and it’s even worse to see it now. Not proud. Not how I’m raising my kids. That being said, I wanted to reach out and apologise so a few years back I found an address for Robbie and wrote him a note to say how sorry I was.

“He was very gracious and forgiving. We ended up meeting last summer and I spent time with him, his amazing wife Ayda Field Williams and his gorgeous kids. It was lovely to be able to become friends and we have now made some songs together.

“I suppose the moral of this story is, as ever, be kind. To own your mistakes. And if you’re ever cruel, try to make sure it’s not filmed as it’s bloody brutal to see sharp tongued teenage me after all these years! Yikes. Xx ps - watch the documentary. It’s great.”

Williams arrives in Australia on Monday ahead of his XXV Tour kick off in Sydney on Thursday.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor regrets her sledge of Robbie Williams. Picture: Getty Images

WILLIAM’S WIFE SUPER NERVOUS ABOUT DOCO

Robbie Williams’ wife Ayda Field has shared how “super nervous and vulnerable” she is about the world “going through my knicker draw” via the new Netflix documentary about her husband’s battles with fame and addiction.

Field said she had received a barrage of texts ahead of the Robbie Williams doco premiere this week which had her “feeling incredibly vulnerable about everyone seeing Rob’s life, our life, our kids; it feels like everyone’s gonna look through my knicker draw, Rob’s knicker draw - he’s got tiger pants.”

In the Instagram video, the wellness and fashion influencer shared how she had been moved to tears watching the four part series.

And she knew she and her husband would face tough questions from their four children - Teddy, Charlton, Coco and Beau - when they were old enough to watch it.

“I definitely cried several times, and had many proud moments, and I look forward to sharing it one day with my children who will have lots of questions,” she said.

She said she hoped viewers would find her husband “a good guy” after watching the intimate documentary which was filmed at their Los Angeles home as he watched hundreds of hours of footage of his life from Take That to now.

The Robbie Williams documentary is a lot. The 49-year-old Better Man pop superstar has bravely shared his battles with addiction, anxiety and depression throughout his three-decades career, shouting to the world that he was mentally ill from his early ascent to fame when he was a teenager.

He’s shared the list of drugs he has consumed within his song lyrics; he even gave a door-stop interview to British media as he was heading to rehab after leaving Take That.

The Netflix four-part series is a brutally raw and anxiety-ridden exercise in exorcising the demons of his past, with Williams reflecting on hours and hours of footage of his career, including watching himself suffer panic attacks, rave on video blogs while under the influence of a cocktail of drugs and get steroid shots when his body gets beaten up on tour.

It also shows him analysing some of the most significant relationships in his life, with his romances with All Saints’ star Nicole Appleton, Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and wife Ayda Field examined throughout the documentary series.

The Doomed Engagement

Williams had kicked off his solo career when he met Nicole Appleton in late 1997 during an appearance on influential British television show Top of the Pops.

The member of Brit girl group All Saints and the former boy band member are shown flirting up a storm in footage shared in the first episode of the doco.

“She was kind and fun and sweet … she was just a good soul,” Williams says.

Their relationship burned brightly for about a year, with Williams proposing to her over the phone from his tour bus. Williams and his team seemingly filmed almost every minute of his life.

Williams and Appleton were engaged during their whirlwind romance. Picture: PA Images via Getty Images.

“Um Nicky, will you marry me?” he asks. “Yes? Good. All right then, bye.”

On reflection, Williams said he was trying to convince himself back then he was ready for that “kind of commitment.”

“I know I’m not … I couldn’t look after myself. I was in no fit state to offer myself as a partner.”

Spice up your life

Most of us forgot the former boy band member and girl group star Geri Halliwell were a thing.

The doco offers juicy voyeuristic delights via home movies shot during the Mediterranean holiday they enjoyed with Williams’ longtime songwriting partner Guy Chambers and his wife Emma in August 2000.

The pair enjoyed sailing trips on a luxury yacht, exploring the nearby mountain villages in a jeep, wrestling on the lawn and hanging out by the pool at their villa in the south of France.

“It was a very confusing relationship because she’s a girl, I’m a boy; we are very good friends trying to sort out the wreckage of the past,” Williams says.

“I just found her company very, very easy. There is a silliness, we really got on really well, it was fun and we were just a little gang sharing a very magical moment in a magical place.”

Williams and Halliwell didn’t last because of the constant presence of paparazzi. Picture: AP.

He was inspired to write his song Eternity about their idyllic summer romance.

But his happy place was destroyed when the paparazzi pack began to shadow their every move.

“I had a friendship with our Ginger that meant a lot to me, in a time when I didn’t have any relationships that I felt completely comfortable with,” he says in the doco.

“But wherever we went, the paparazzi were there before we got there and very private, personal moments became public property and we were just dumbfounded how this could be happening.

“I bumped into a guy who was a paparazzi … he told me that it was Geri doing that. Now I don’t think that’s true for one second, but at the time I did believe it.

“It just goes to show what being in the spotlight can do to your psyche when you can’t trust anybody. And it ruined, in some way, the memory of such an important part of my life and such a joyous occasion.”

Williams told The Sun that Halliwell gave him permission to use the footage for the Netflix series.

The Woman Who Saved Him

In 2007, Williams relapsed into addiction and was taking prescription drugs including oxycontin, adderall, vicodin and morphine.

A friend suggested he date actor Ayda Field and they arranged to meet up at his home after she attended a dinner party – and he saw off “my drug dealer who I was sleeping with at the time.”

They chatted but found little in common, so he drove her back to the party. In the car, they relaxed and were enjoying each other’s company so he decided to go in for a few minutes. He took cocaine at the party and had a severe reaction.

Williams and Field’s relationship got off to a rocky start but they married in 2010. Picture: Supplied / Netflix

Field got him out of there and nursed him that night. His management team arrived later, staged an intervention and took him to an American treatment centre. Field was understanding but “crestfallen” when he told her “I can’t be in a relationship, I have to get better, I have to break up with you.”

The pair reunited the following year and travelled the world together as he “retired” from his pop career to continue his recovery.

“There was a cementing of a relationship between me and my future wife … there became enough space between me and my career to fall in love,” he says.

The pair married in 2010 and have four children – daughters Teddy and Coco and sons Charlton and Beau.

“Thank god for Ayda; solace and safety and sanctuary and all of the good things.”

The Scene Stealer

While the celebrity parents are careful not to show their children’s faces on social media posts, 11-year-old eldest daughter Teddy gets a few cameos in the Netflix series.

She adorably sings Angels a cappella while the family are enjoying cake and inquires as to which Take That member her father “hates” and why as he is revisiting his boy band years in the first episode.

She also gets ordered out of his bedroom ahead of any content not suitable for her age, from him inciting a concert crowd to drop an F bomb during a televised gig to harrowing footage of him suffering a mental breakdown.

But the most adorable moment is when she comes into his room to ask permission to have a candy bar, hoping dad would say yes when mum generally says no. Williams sees through the ruse and confiscates the sweets. Just like any other dad.

Robbie Williams is now available on Netflix.

His XXV shows in Australia open on November 16 at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium. For all stadium and A Day On The Green ticket details, visit Frontier’s website.

Originally published as Robbie Williams shares intimate footage of his romances in Netflix doco