Robbie Williams has revealed that he was recently diagnosed with scurvy after he “stopped eating” while taking an appetite-suppressant weight-loss drug.
Months after releasing the box-office bomb yet pretty good CGI monkey biopic, Better Man, Williams spoke to the Daily Mirror this week about starting 2025 with “some ill mental health,” which he said he hadn’t “had for a very, very long time.”
He explained that he and his wife have been under stress with parents who were suffering from health issues, but he wasn’t exactly sure why his depression had returned. “My wife would say, ‘If your depression could talk, what would it say?’” Robbie said. “It wasn’t saying, ‘It’s my mum, or dad, or your mum.’ It wasn’t saying ‘It’s life, or tickets or the tour or the pressure or whatever.’ None of that. It just is. It’s just a pervasive feeling.”
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Williams has had a long struggle with depression, going back to when he first rose to stardom with Take That in the ‘90s. But considering that he had been on the better side of things for some time, this return was “confusing” — until he realized that his diet might’ve been the culprit. Prior to the flare-up, he had begun taking a weight-loss drug, which enabled a poor diet. Ultimately, he “wasn’t getting nutrients.”
That’s what led to the scurvy diagnosis. “A 17th century pirate disease,” he said.
Indeed, scurvy is a disease that occurs when one is vitamin C deficient, and it has long been associated with pirates and sailors of the past. But it still occurs today, sometimes among those struggling with mental health like Williams was, inducing fatigue and causing gum disease, hair loss, and more symptoms. It can even be fatal.
Reportedly, Williams has since improved his diet and his depression has “gradually lifted.”
Elsewhere in his new interview, Williams touched on the fact that he’ll be touring this summer at the same time as Oasis, who he once had public beef with. Now, he’s fond of the music and the looking-back, saying, “Liam’s voice is peerless…he was, and is the voice of a generation.”
His tour will kick off in June and take him to cities across Europe, from London to Istanbul with many stops in between. Get tickets here.
