Robbie Williams has credited “something like Ozempic” with helping him lose weight, adding that the medicine helps the English singer manage his “type 2 self-loathing”.
A forthcoming Netflix documentary about Williams, 49, will give fans a closer look at his rise to stardom in the Nineties, his falling out with Take That lead singer Gary Barlow, and having a very public breakdown at the height of his fame.
In a new interview ahead of the documentary’s release, the “Angels” hitmaker was asked about his dramatic weight loss, when he admitted weight gain can be“shockingly catastrophic to my mental health”.
“Babe, I’m on Ozempic,” he told The Times, referring to the “skinny jab” that became known as “Hollywood’s worst-kept secret”. “Well, something like Ozempic. It’s like a Christmas miracle.”
Williams said he’d lost over a stone since he began taking the Ozempic-like drug, adding: “And I need it, medically. I’ve been diagnosed with type 2 self-loathing. It’s shockingly catastrophic to my mental health to be bigger. My inner voice talks to me like Katie Hopkins talks about fat people. It’s maddening.”
Controversial TV presenter Hopkins has repeatedly sparked controversy with her views on obesity – including in 2015, when she announced her reality series Fat and Back. It followed Hopkins as she attempted to lose three stone on-air to prove that overweight people should “stop blaming everyone else for problems they can control”.
Doctors are urging caution over the uncontrolled use of weight loss jabs, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, which have several side effects including nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, abdominal pain, headache, fatigue, indigestion, dizziness, and digestive disorders.
A CNN investigation earlier this year found that some Ozempic and Wegovy users suffered from “stomach paralysis” or severe gastroparesis.
Robbie Williams plays Thursday of Mad Cool festival— (Javier Bragado)
Earlier this year, Williams opened up about having body dysmorphia in a frank post on Instagram, calling it a “f***ing disaster”, after fans noticed he looked visibly slimmer.
“I could write a book about self-loathing where my body image is concerned,” he captioned the message. “Like pure self-hatred, The ugliness of feeling ugly. I’m body dysmorphic and on top of being dysmorphic at times, I can be 40+ pounds overweight.”
“So you can imagine what my mind sees. Or maybe you can’t either way it’s a f*****g disaster,” he added.
Elsewhere in the new interview, Williams compared the process of making his Netflix documentary with “watching a crash you were involved in” and “enduring your mental illness” at a painfully slow pace over a very long time.
“When they asked me to make the documentary, I came up with a jingle for it,” he said. “‘Trauma watch!/ Trauma watch!/ Have a trauma watch!/ I was in Take That then I left Take That/ Then I did drugs and I got real fat.’”
Robbie Williams will be released on Netflix next month, on 8 November.
If you have been affected by this article, you can contact the following organisations for support: actiononaddiction.org.uk, mind.org.uk, nhs.uk/livewell/mentalhealth, mentalhealth.org.uk.
