PLACING his hand on her stomach, Robbie Williams told Nicole Appleton: “This baby is saving my life.”
Take That turned solo star Robbie and All Saints singer Nicole were secretly preparing to become parents for the first time – after meeting backstage at Top Of The Pops in December 1997.
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Robbie Williams and Nicole Appleton leaving the London club in 1998. Credits: Alpha Press
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Robbie and Nicole support the Unicef campaign in 2004. Credit: Michael Melia
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Nicole at the London premiere of Robbie’s biopic this weekCredit: Getty
But in scenes set in his new biopic Better Man, Nicole, who was four months pregnant at the time, miscarried the baby after bowing to pressure from her record company.
Fast-forward 25 years to the film’s London premiere this week and Robbie, 50, who now shares four children with beloved actress wife Ayda Field, dedicated a performance of his 1999 hit She’s The One at the after party to first love Nicole.
The biopic, which hits cinemas on Boxing Day, features Robbie as a CGI chimp – after revealing he felt like an acting monkey on stage over the years.
Born in Stoke-on-Trent, Robbie burst onto the pop scene aged 16 in Take That alongside Gary Barlow, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Howard Donald.
But his rise to fame – which later went solo in 1995 – was dogged by alcohol and drug abuse and fueled by an insatiable appetite to “make it” after watching his own father Peter perform as an entertainer.
‘Not able’
But away from the spotlight, he has fallen madly in love with Nicole – who he recently called a “total angel”.
But the relationship of the poster couple from the nineties collapsed in 1999 after a miscarriage.
Robbie says both he and Nicole, now 49, have approved the biopic’s script – and he praised his ex in front of LA-born star Ayda at the film’s after party.
Robbie, whose life was also the subject of a Netflix documentary of the same name last year, said: “A round of applause for Nicole Appleton.
“People keep coming up to me and saying that I’m very brave for making a documentary and a film. But I’m on the freaking spectrum — I don’t pick up on any cues about what should or shouldn’t be said.
Robbie Williams performs at his Better Man premiere after party in London
“I’m not brave – I just don’t know when to shut up. Nicole, on the other hand, is freaking brave — which allows us to tell that part of the story.”
Nicole, played by Australian actress Raechelle Banno in the film, supported her ex at the premiere as she hit the red carpet in a matching dress.
She was joined at the event by her sister and fellow All Saints singer Natalie Appleton.
Posing with her businessman husband Stephen Haines on Instagram, Nicole wrote: “What a night! Such a roller coaster. I liked it.”
The biopic shows Robbie and Nicole vacationing on a yacht and attending red carpet events as they become a power couple.
But his need for fame takes over and his character in the film is seen leaving Nicole at an All Saints party to go on a night out with Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher – who would later marry and then divorce Nicole.
A glimmer of hope
Robbie and Nicole’s relationship did see a glimmer of hope when they were shown in the film decorating the nursery after Nicole discovered she was expecting their child.
However, their path to becoming parents was cut short when Nicole was seen visiting an abortion clinic.
Robbie now tells how the couple burst into tears after the film’s previous premiere in Los Angeles.
Ahead of the London screening, he said: “They made her abort our child. It’s rough and provocative. This thing with Nico is the hardest part of the movie for me.
“Everybody else in the movie — they’ve done something bad and I don’t mind throwing them under the bus.
“But when it came to Nic, I was the person who did the bad thing – not talking about her having an abortion. I didn’t do it. But she is wonderful and kind and brave and wants her side of the story to be shown.
They forced her to abort our child. It’s rough and provocative. This thing with Nico is the hardest part of the movie for me
Robbie Williams
“So I FaceTimed her after she came out of the screening and it was a blub-fest. It was tears, tears, tears. By the time we could talk, all we could say was: ‘Torn down’. “
At the screening in LA, Robbie said: “I hope this is a healing experience for me — and for her because she didn’t deserve the version of me she had then. I feel a great shame that I didn’t present myself in the best way because she deserves the best and she didn’t get it.”
In last year’s Netflix four-parter, Robbie said he was “unable” to commit to Nicole – but how, just after leaving Take That in 1995, it was inevitable their “paths would cross” given their pop careers.
Nicole was born in Ontario, Canada, one of four sisters, and grew up in Toronto before moving to London to pursue a pop career.
In 1996, sisters Nicole and Natalie joined the girl band All Saints, which had been formed three years earlier by Melanie Blatt and Shaznay Lewis.
They released the single I Know Where It’s At in 1997 and it reached number 4 in the UK.
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Robbie, center top, with Take That in the early nineties Credit: Getty
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Robbie with Oasis hellraiser Liam Gallagher in 1995. Credit: Alamy
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Robbie with Ayda, who he credits as changing his life, 2018. Credit: Getty
But it was the follow-up single Never Ever that catapulted them to stardom in November 1997 – topping the charts in the UK and Australia.
Of meeting Nicole, Robbie said in his Netflix series, “She was kind, funny and a sweet, good soul.”
Just a few months after they met, Robbie popped the question on the phone while on tour.
But watching old footage in the Netflix series, he added: “I guess I’m trying to convince myself that I’m a commitment person. I couldn’t take care of myself.
“I was unable to offer myself as a partner and the relationship ended a few months after this.”
In 2002, Nicole bravely revealed for the first time in her autobiography Together that she had an abortion after becoming pregnant with Robbie.
‘I wanted to kill myself’
She wrote: “I couldn’t believe what I had done. I wanted to kill myself.” But Nicole then added: “Writing about it forced me to face all of that and I’m so glad I did.
“It was there, but I never told anyone the details. It was as if I was saying, ‘Do you understand now why my confidence is gone?’ “
In 2000, Nicole became engaged to Robbie’s chart rival Liam Gallagher and the couple had a son, Gene, now 23, after 18 months together.
But just months before she gave birth, Robbie challenged Liam to a fight while on stage at the Brit Awards after winning Best British Single for She’s The One.
As the fans cheered, he looked down the camera lens and said, “Are you gonna do it or fuck off, you weakling?”
Nicole married Liam on Valentine’s Day 2008 at London’s Westminster Registry Office.
Broken marriage
But their marriage fell apart in 2013 when it was revealed that Liam had a daughter with American journalist Liza Ghorbani.
Nicole then finally found happiness with her now-husband Stephen — she gave birth to daughter Skipper in 2020 and married a year later.
Meanwhile, Robbie is finally happy, healthy and at peace after being sober for more than 20 years — and married to Ayda since 2010.
Now he says that he was “lucky” to have met Ayda and that she is the reason why he is “still alive today”.
Robbie adds: “I came from a deficit of brokenness and vulnerability so severe that it was impossible to live most days between my ears. It’s better now.
“By the grace of God or whatever it is, the universe presented me with someone who is so beautiful, who I look up to so much.
“I’m getting better and better every day thanks to being grounded, my children and my wife.”
Ayda even made Robbie finally love Christmas.
He says: “She is the spirit of Christmas, she gave me a gift.”
At the after party of the London premiere, changing the last chorus of She’s The One to “She’s the mother of my children”, Robbie looked at his wife Ayda, who was looking at him proudly.
Closing with a cover of Frank Sinatra’s My Way, he added: “Thank you for coming to the proudest night of my life. I am full of joy and gratitude.”
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Robbie’s character in the movie
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A Better Man features Robbie as an acting chimpanzee
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education