Scroll down to read about how Robbie’s lifestyle was before he settled down with wife Ayda
THERE aren’t many men who could boast of locking lips with two Spice Girls and a member of Take That. But Robbie Williams isn’t most men.
The superstar naturally takes his roll call of A-list conquests in his stride as we play a toe-curling — mine, not his — game of Never Have I Ever.
“If I’ve done it, I have to drink,” Robbie reminds himself as we prepare to down shots of Evian, not vodka, thanks to the singer’s quarter century of sobriety.
“The Spice Girls: Yep, snogged two,” Robbie chimes as I gingerly neck a shot while managing to dodge publicly confessing which of the five I’ve snogged (IFYKYK).
Of his Take That bandmates, Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Howard Donald and self-imposed hermit Jason Orange, Robbie adds: “I must have kissed one. Tongues? Hmmm I don’t know if there’d be tongues.”While many a D-list celebrity would be absolutely horrified by some of my questions — “I have never pooed myself?”, “I have never had a 72-hour bender?” — Robbie is a man with nothing to prove.
He has seen and done it all, and has the gongs, accolades and fame to prove it.
When I text him in advance to check a non-drinking drinking game would be OK, he replies: “Can we make it filthy?”
He then promptly asks a question unprintable in a family newspaper.
Naturally, there is no escaping Robbie’s hedonistic lifestyle prior to settling down with Ayda.
Today, he is happy to rake over some of them. Has he ever joined the Mile High Club? (Sex at 36,000ft, not an awful private members bar).
“I’ve never joined the Mile High . . . oh, yeah, I have,” Robbie grins.
“Helicopter!”
He adds: “To be fair I’d have shagged a slow puncture, but opportunity never arose.
“I’ve slept with many older women who would probably be younger than me now. And maybe a little older than me, but not over 60. Not saying that I wouldn’t have.”
Pre-Ayda, Robbie never properly settled and, in a rare moment of calm in the game, expands.
“Looking outside of myself, I ticked a lot of boxes,” the Let Me Entertain You singer explains.
“Therefore, lots of people would fall in love with me very, very quickly. And I just got bored and scared of breaking people’s hearts.
“When I was out and about, I was a good option for people’s futures. I’ve ghosted several people.”
He says he also nearly got a life ban from a well-known airline.
“Virgin Atlantic nearly didn’t let me on the plane for being so drunk.
“I was absolutely hammered and demanding more booze.
“So what they did, on the plane, they went and rimmed my glass with Jack Daniel’s.
“So I was just drinking Coke but it smelt of Jack Daniel’s. Thank you, Virgin.”
The turning point, after getting sober and marrying Ayda in 2010, was welcoming his four children. And his dogs.
Virgin Atlantic nearly didn’t let me on a plane, I was so drunk
Robbie Williams
I meet five, including Mr Showbiz and Shih Tzu Buddy.
“When they arrived, they changed everything,” Robbie says, of his kids, not the dogs, I think.
“I got a purpose,” he adds.
Would he go the whole hog and get a five-a-side football team, I ask, remembering from the last time we spoke that Robbie and Ayda still have an embryo in the freezer.
“I’m done, it’s over,” Robbie says firmly.
“It’s just renting a space that it doesn’t need to rent now but my wife won’t let go of it.
“She brings it up all the time and, no, I’m done, done.
“I’m loving what we’re going through and what we’re experiencing but I don’t want to start again.
“We’ve got four, that’s four more than I ever thought I would have.”
Despite all the staff who help run his life, Robbie is a remarkably hands-on dad.
He has written songs for all his kids, with 100% Beau an ode to his youngest child on his brilliant new album, Britpop.
The desire to provide for his kids remains his drive.
He muses: “My arse is lit with purpose and I love my job.
“Subconsciously I saw being a pop star and becoming famous and successful as something that was going to fix me.
“But then, and I’m not the first one to experience this, you get to the top of the mountain and you have an existential crisis.
“It’s like, ‘It didn’t fix me’. And now I have the best job in the world.
“I think I’m addicted to work.”
However, he is acutely aware of the scrutiny he still faces in public, saying: “Anywhere I go, people think I can’t see them taking a picture, holding the camera at an unusual angle.
Ayda brings it up all the time but we’ve got 4. No, I’m done, done
Robbie Williams
“We know you’re doing it. It’s weird.
“So you’re constantly aware of yourself in public, just in case somebody catches five seconds of you scratching your bum, or looking as if you’re having an argument with somebody when you’re not.
“You’re aware that anything you do at any moment can be an international incident.”
It doesn’t stop Robbie from dropping a stinker every now and then.
A Celebrity Traitors fan, I mention Celia Imrie’s outrageously loud fart, and ask if Robbie has accidentally let one slip.
He admits: “I have done public farts and I do quite a few on stage and they are, for I would say about five seconds, one of life’s greatest pleasures.
