Robbie Williams's Biography

Robbie Williams was the first member of Take That to leave the band. In the summer of 1995 he set out to pursue a solo career.

Initially, Robbie Williams was not a massive success. But his single "Angels", released Christmas 1997, saw his popularity shoot up.

Since then he has released a range of successful albums featuring huge hit singles: "I've Been Expecting You" contained "Millennium", "Strong", "No Regrets" and "She's the one"; "Sing When Your Winning" included "Escapology"; and the live album "What We Did Last Summer". Robbie also released a cover album of classic songs, "Swing When Your Winning".

Escapology, the fifth Robbie Williams album was successful in Europe, but failed in America.

Williams followed up with Intensive Care and by November 2005, the BBC were reporting that Robbie Williams had sold the most albums of anyone in the UK in the 21st Century.

The trend continued in October 2006, when Robbie Williams's album Rudebox went straight to the top of the album charts.

The recent biography 'Feel' revealed regarding Robbie Willams's celebrity conquests:

"'I did look in the FHM Top 100 women list once,' he says, 'and there were 15 of them.'

"'Did that make you feel good or bad?'

"'At the time it actually made me feel bad. Now it's just funny. It was like Pokemon with me at one point. You've gotta catch 'em all.'"

In February 2007, Robbie Williams was admitted into a rehab clinic to be treated for a dependency on prescription drugs. Williams has had a history of problems with drugs and alcohol, but in 2004 he claimed to have given then up as they made him too fat.

In August 2009, it was revealed that Robbie Williams was to release a new album Reality Killed The Video Star in November and the first single from it, Bodies, would be released on 11 October.

Bodies became Robbie Williams's 20th top five single of his 13-year solo career.

In February 2010, Robbie Williams, who had already won more Brit awards than any other artist, gained his 16th award with the Brit award for outstanding contribution.

On 7 June 2010, the BBC reported that Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow were to release a duet, Shame, in October, 15 years after they had last recorded together.

Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow reunited on stage when they performed Shame in a Help For Heroes concert in September 2010.

In 2010 Robbie Williams and Ayda Field got married. In September 2012, they had a daughter.

In November 2012, Robbie Williams had his first solo UK number one for eight years, with Candy.

In November 2013, Robbie Williams's album Swing Both Ways became the 1000th number one in the UK Official Albums Chart. It was his 11th number one album, equalling the record of Elvis Presley for number one albums by male solo singers.

His next album took three more years, scheduled for release on 4 November 2016, with the title track, Heavy Entertainment Show.

It went straight to number one, and so he Robbie Williams broke the record for most number one albums by a British solo artist, ahead of David Bowie who had 11.

In 2018, it was announced that he and his wife Ayda Field were to be judges on The X Factor and in the same year their child Colette “Coco” Josephine Williams was born.

In April 2019, it was announced that Robbie Williams and his wife Ayda Field were leaving The X Factor.

Also in 2019, Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers wrote the music and lyrics to the RSC's production of The Boy in the Dress based on the book by David Walliams.

In December 2019, he became the joint most successful solo act in UK album chart history with his 13th number one, The Christmas Present, equalling Elvis Presley.

In February 2020, Robbie Williams and Ayda Field Williams announced the birth of their fourth child, the second to be born via a surrogate.

In 2022, he released an album entitled 25 to mark 25 years as a solo artist.