Robbie Williams health update: Take That superstar suffers scurvy after extreme diet - what is the 17th century pirate disease?

The Take That superstar has spoken out about extreme dieting prompted by unnecessary worries about his weight and that it create even more issues for him to deal with.

The beloved pop star says that things have now improved but did reflect on a time when he had made a drastic change to his diet and ended up with scurvy but because of his "body dysmorphia", he was actually really pleased when others raised their concerns about his weight.

He said: "I’d stopped eating and I wasn’t getting nutrients. A 17th-century pirate disease! With body dysmorphia, when people say they’re worried about how you’re looking, you’re like: ‘I’ve achieved it.’ When people say: ‘we’re worried you’re too thin’ that goes into my head as ‘jackpot - I’ve reached the promised land’."

According to nhs.uk scurvy is caused by not having enough vitamin C in your diet over a long period of time. Even people who do not eat very healthily all the time are not usually considered at risk of scurvy. The risk of scurvy is increased by not eating fruits or vegetables; eat very little food at all; smoke, as smoking reduces how much vitamin C your body gets from food; and having a long-term dependency on drugs or alcohol that affects your diet.

The 51-year-old pop star has been open about his struggles in the past but thought he had come through the other side of it, only to be left feeling "sad, anxious, and depressed" at the start of 2025.

He told The Mirror: "The year started with some ill mental health, which I haven’t had for a very, very long time. I was sad, I was anxious, I was depressed. It’s been about 10 years...I thought I was at the other end of the arc. I thought this was the end of my story, and I would just walk into this marvelous wonderland. So for it to return was just confusing."

Meanwhile, the 'Rock DJ' hitmaker - who is married to Ayda Field and has Teddy, 12, son Charlie, 10, Coco, six, and four-year-old son Beau, with her - joked that sometimes his children can be completely oblivious to his fame but then other times have a realisation that their dad is someone other than a person who just tells them off.

He added: "I did this gig in Munich to 125,000 people, the place was going wild, and I’m singing 'Let Me Entertain You' ….but Charlie has just got his head down playing on his iPad.

"But at Hyde Park last year, I came off, and afterwards, he was just looking at me with these wide eyes, like he had a moment of recognition that his dad was somebody other than somebody that tells him to stop misbehaving or the dad police!"