When the credits rolled on the European premiere of Robbie William’s hit biopic Better Man on Wednesday night, its leading lady insisted the night wasn’t over for her famous friends.
Leading her glamorous crew from the Odeon Leicester Square to nearby cabaret club Lio, she took to the stage for an intimate hour-long performance of her back catalogue.
There, under the lights of the show, Robbie thanked all those who supported him during the production of the film.
After all, the film was a deeply intimate undertaking that forced him to reflect on past mistakes, of which there have been many: deep and destructive addictions to cocaine and alcohol, not to mention an almost repellent arrogance in the heyday of his fame.
But there was a clue to what still bothers Robbie the most about all his past misdeeds.
Because he then paid a particularly emotional tribute to the woman who had been his support during this very difficult project.
However, the woman in question was not his beautiful American wife of 14 years, Ayda Field. Rather, it was his ex-fiancee, All Saints singer Nicole Appleton, who received Robbie’s adoration.
Asked about the film, which recreates the moment she was pressured by record bosses to end the child she had conceived with Robbie, it was abundantly clear that this was an emotional rollercoaster for both Nicole and Robbie, 50.
Robbie Williams pictured with his ex-fiancee, All Saints singer Nicole Appleton. The couple has become close after being apart for about 25 years.
Robbie with his American wife of 14 years, Ayda Field, mother of his four children, aged 11 to four.
Leaning into the microphone, he said: ‘A round of applause for Nicole Appleton. “Nicole Appleton is fucking brave for allowing us to tell that story.”
He then launched into the familiar lyrics of his most famous romantic hit: “I was her, she was me/We were one, we were free/And if there’s someone calling me/She’s the one.”
We can hardly imagine what the loyal Ayda, the mother of his four children, aged between 11 and four, must have thought about it.
But I can reveal that Robbie’s very public statement about his ex-girlfriend is just the tip of the iceberg.
For about 25 years after their separation, the two have become very close again.
A source who worked on the film told me: “Everyone was surprised at how closely involved Nicole was in the film. Robbie clearly has great affection for Nicole and is fiercely protective of her.
‘Robbie spoke to her throughout production, affectionately referring to her as Nicky. They were often on Facetime reminiscing, and he made sure she saw every draft of the script and saw multiple different cuts of the film.
‘Their complicated romance came at such a crucial time in their lives and is something they have never forgotten.
“It was clear that this movie was Robbie’s way of saying sorry to Nicole for how badly he had behaved towards her in the past.”
As Robbie admitted this week, much to her “great shame”, he was a “fucking horrible boyfriend” to her, while she was a “complete angel”.
He told an intimate audience of industry figures in Los Angeles: “The hardest thing is watching Nicole and what we went through, because she was instructed to get rid of our baby.” That’s the hardest part of the movie for me.
Robbie admitted this week, to his “great embarrassment”, that he was a “horrible fucking boyfriend” to Nicole, while she was a “complete angel”.
Robbie fell in love with Nicole after they met on Top Of The Pops in 1997. They soon began dating and Robbie proposed to her the following year.
‘I FaceTimed her right after she came out of the screening and it was just a grease fest. They were just tears, tears, tears.
“Everyone else in the movie did something bad to me and I don’t mind throwing them under the bus.
But with Nic I did the wrong thing. It wasn’t that, it wasn’t the abortion, I didn’t make her do that, but I was a horrible fucking boyfriend, really horrible, and I was at the height of my addiction and alcoholism. . And it breaks my heart every time I see her, because she is a complete angel and there is still shame for who I was then.
“But she is incredibly wonderful, incredibly kind and incredibly brave and she also wants her part of the story to be shown.”
In fact, Nicole was on the red carpet for the film’s premiere in London shining in a sequin dress.
Now a mother of two, she had already seen an early screening of the film, in which Robbie is played by a CGI monkey, a creative decision he describes as due to the fact that he was “less evolved” in his youth.
Unlike most fawning celebrity biographies, Robbie’s film depicts him, as one critic detailed, “as a bloody boyfriend, a thoughtless son, a terrible friend and an unpleasant person to work with.”
And it was in this period of peak antipathy, during his early days as a solo artist after leaving Take That, that Robbie fell for Nicole, now 49, after they met on Top Of The Pops in 1997. They soon began dating. , and Robbie proposed the following year.
The moment was captured on camera and shows a young Robbie sitting up in bed calling Nicole via his brick-shaped mobile phone.
‘Nicky, will you marry me?’ before giving a thumbs up to the camera to indicate he said “yes.”
Robbie at the London premiere of his new hit biopic, Better Man, which forces him to reflect on past mistakes, of which there have been many
Watching footage from a Netflix documentary last year, Robbie said: “I guess I’m trying to convince myself that I’m the kind of person who’s ready for that kind of commitment, but I know I’m not.”
The Let Me Entertain You singer, then mired in terrible addictions, added: “I couldn’t take care of myself. I was not in a position to offer myself as a partner.
When Nicole, then 25, discovered she was pregnant in 1998, Robbie was excited and hoped it would give her the drive to beat her addictions.
She later wrote in her autobiography: “Robbie put his hand on my belly and said, ‘This baby is saving my life.'”
But four months into her pregnancy, she gave in to her record company’s demands to terminate it.
She wrote: ‘I couldn’t believe what I had done. I wanted to commit suicide. Then everyone pretended it hadn’t happened.
Nicole said the abortion occurred when she was four months pregnant and took place at a private clinic in New York.
The experience, she said, made her feel suicidal: There were no checks on whether she had saved any tissue from the procedure, no proper counseling or even advice about traveling before a tour she later took. Traumatized, she lost two kilos.
“My life had been in the hands of a doctor who had cared for it less than a stray dog,” he later said.
This heartbreaking chapter, then, is right at the heart of Robbie’s new film, and the emotional ripple effect of Nicole’s firing can be seen throughout her turbulent life.
Her emotions were particularly intense when Nicole decided to write about abortion in her 2002 autobiography Together.
Shortly afterwards he surprised guests with an explosive recording of his concert on BBC One, when he shouted ‘fuck you’ before singing ‘Sexed Up’, a bitter song he wrote in 1998 when his relationship with Nicole was in crisis, which includes the lyrics . : ‘Fuck you, I didn’t like your taste. Anyway, I chose you and all of that was in vain.
However, Robbie later claimed that he had given his blessing for Nicole to write about the book’s sensitive subject, but admitted that it was difficult to see “black on white” and that it “tore me up.”
He said: ‘I spoke to her probably eight or nine months before the book came out and I was completely supportive.
‘If there’s something that’s so deeply embedded inside you that you’d feel better about exorcising it and getting it off your chest, because secrets can make you sick and secrets can make you feel terrible…then I’m completely behind her. But it was disturbing to see it written in black and white.”
Yet somehow they remained friends. After their split, Nicole married Oasis singer Liam Gallagher, with whom she had a son, Gene, now 22 years old.
When their marriage broke down in 2014 after Liam had a child with another woman, American journalist Liza Ghorbani supported Nicole.
Speaking at the time, Robbie said: ‘I have a huge soft spot for Nic because he is a very decent person. I feel sorry for her because she deserves to be in a good place, in a happy marriage, and I thought she was with Liam. But it seems they weren’t.
Nicole has since found stability with Stephen Haines, head of tech giant Meta, whom she married in 2021. They have a daughter, four-year-old Skipper, and he was firmly at her side at the film screening.
As for Robbie’s wife, Ayda, what does she think about Nicole being the center of attention in her husband’s life again?
‘Well, it’s part of your story. “I felt comfortable with that,” she said this week.
‘Listen, you can’t edit the past. We all have exes. I have ex. I’m not a jealous guy and she seems lovely.’
And she added about her husband: ‘God… he was kind of a shitty boyfriend. I am very proud that he is honest. I’m grateful that you tell your story and don’t just sugarcoat it.
“I would have tried to rescue Rob when I was younger, but he would have completely ruined it. So I think I met him at the right time.
“But I will always try to rescue him.”