Robbie Williams, who has been open about his struggles with ADHD, has revealed that he was recently diagnosed with autism and joked that he is now using it as his “get out of jail free card”
(Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
Robbie Williams has revealed he’s been diagnosed with autism. The pop star, 52, was initially told he had ADHD more than two decades ago but has now shared an update with fans.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, affects the way the brain works, particularly when it comes to tasks that require memory, concentration or being still.
The former Take That star joked he was thrilled with the news as he’s been handed a ‘get out of jail free card’ to say what he likes.
Robbie shared: “I have ADHD and I just found out I have a bit of autism as well, which I actually f****** love because it explains so much. It is my get-out-of-jail-free card now, and all the weird s*** that I do I just say, ‘Sorry, I’m autistic.’ With the ADHD you can completely and utterly concentrate on something 1000 per cent, but with absolutely everything else, you just cannot do it. Ask my kids.”
The NHS website describes autism as a “difference” brain development compared to those who do not have, or exhibit signs of, the condition.
The pop star, who is married to ex-Loose Women star Ayda Field and has Teddy, 13, Charlie, 11, Coco, seven, and six-year-old Beau with her, then gave an insight into how his thoughts work as he recently convinced himself he had telekenisis and the ability to crash a plane with his mind.
During a Q&A at the Autumn/Winter launch launch of his clothing brand Hopium, as reported by the Daily Mail, he said: “”What I’m completely and utterly obsessed with is creating images and making funny things, if I’m creating images and funny things, I’m not thinking about me, because my brain is incredibly creative, and it can be creative about everything in the world that you panic or scared about.
“For example, this is how crazy I am, recently, I was sitting on a plane, and I thought ”what if I can have telekinesis and my intrusive thoughts tell the plane to crash itself.”
Towards the end of last year, Robbie told fans that he was sure he also had Tourette’s syndrome. He said: “I’ve just realised that I have Tourette’s, but they don’t come out. I was just walking down the road the other day and I realised that these intrusive thoughts are ‘inside Tourette’s’.”
Speaking on the I’m ADHD! No You’re Not podcast, he added: “You would think that a stadium full of people professing their love to you would work, but whatever it is, inside me, cannot hear it. This tour in particular, as a 51-year-old, I’ve approached it differently because I seem to be in the space to approach things differently.
“I have a very complicated relationship with touring and performing live. People say: ‘Oh, you going on tour? You must be really, really excited.’ Not really. I’m terrified. I mask, like I’m an Olympian at masking,” Robbie admitted.
“I will look full of bravado and look pompous and look smug and do these grand gestures, which have worked for me because they put my face on the poster and people still buy tickets but actually what’s happening is I feel like the opposite of that all the time, most of the time.
“It’s getting better. I would say it’s gotten better from 45 onwards. This particular tour that I’m now in, I’m very pleased to say, for me, is that I’m dead excited to do my show that I’m doing tomorrow and I was excited to do one last week.
“I said to the wife while I was rehearsing, I said, I’ve got that PTSD stuff about performance, whatever it was in the Take That years and whatever it was subsequently when I got to the top of the mountain and it didn’t fix me. In fact, it made things worse inside me. Whatever all of that stuff was, I still get triggered from it and it still affects me.”
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