Robbie Willliams dubs ex-girlfriend Nicole Appleton a ‘complete angel’ as he opens up on their turbulent 90s relationship and her heartbreaking abortion

Robbie Williams has called his ex-girlfriend Nicole Appleton ‘a complete angel’ as he opened up about their turbulent relationship and her heartbreaking abortion in the 1990s.

In a new interview with Hello! Magazine, the Take That singer 50 discussed his upcoming biopic Better Man, which covers his Nineties romance with All Saints star 49.

He explained that he had invited her for an early screening, before admitting: ‘The hardest part is watching Nicole and what we went through because she was ordered to get rid of our baby…’

The singer added: “I didn’t let her do that, but I was a terrible friend, really terrible, and I was at the height of my addiction and alcoholism.

“And it breaks my heart every time I look at it, because she’s a complete angel, and there’s still shame attached to who I was then.”

Robbie added that he called her as soon as she left the screening and they both shed tears.

Thee Take That star, 50, discussed his upcoming biopic Better Man, which looks back on his 1990s romance with the All Saints star, 49

Nicole revealed her side of the relationship and breakup in her 2002 autobiography Together, in which she wrote how she became pregnant with Robbie’s baby but had an abortion under pressure from All Saints’ record company.

Recalling Robbie’s reaction to her pregnancy at the time, she said: ‘Robbie Williams put his hand on my stomach and said to me, ‘This baby saves my life.’

Robbie supported his ex’s decision to write about the abortion in her autobiography, but later admitted that reliving it had ‘torn him apart’.

“I fully supported her… If there’s something that’s so deeply ingrained within you that you feel like it would be better for you if you just exorcised it and got it off your chest, because secrets can make you sick and secrets can make you sick. feel terrible… then I fully support her,” he previously told the Ny Breaking.

It comes after he reflected on his relationship with Nicole in his revealing Netflix documentary last year.

Home video footage showed the pop couple in the early days of their romance after they met on Top Of The Pops in 1997.

Footage then shows the moment a smitten Robbie, who was in the middle of his hugely successful solo career at the time, proposed during a short telephone conversation.

Reflecting on the nine-month relationship, which saw the couple split several times, Robbie explained how he was ‘not fit’ to commit.

The singer added: “I didn’t let her do that, but I was a terrible friend, really terrible, and I was at the height of my addiction and alcoholism.

Home video footage shows the pop couple in the early days of their romance after meeting on Top Of The Pops in 1997

Reflecting on the nine-month relationship, which saw the couple split several times, Robbie explains how he was ‘not fit’ to commit

During footage of the early weeks of their romance, Robbie said it was inevitable that his and Nicole’s paths would cross thanks to their parallel pop careers.

“She was kind and fun and sweet, you know she’s just a good soul,” Robbie says in the documentary. ‘My relationship with Nic made it very important for me to learn to become the man I needed to be.’

But he admitted he wasn’t ready for a relationship yet, explaining how after joining Take That at the age of 16, “nobody rounds off childhood fame in a balanced way.”

‘The years of finding yourself, maturing and growing up that everyone takes away from you.

Robbie is then seen on a quick phone call while on the road, proposing to Nicole.

“I guess I’m trying to convince myself that I’m the kind of person who’s ready for that kind of commitment, I know I’m not,” Robbie says in voiceover.

‘I couldn’t take care of myself. I was unable to offer myself as a partner and the relationship with Nic ended a few months later.’

Robbie described how he “felt like a child in an adult world” at the time.

“I guess I’m trying to convince myself that I’m the kind of person who’s ready for that kind of commitment, I know I’m not,” Robbie says in the voiceover

In footage from the early weeks of their romance, Robbie says it was inevitable that his and Nicole’s paths would cross thanks to their parallel pop careers.

He had enjoyed huge success in his post-Take That career with the release of Angels in 1997, but struggled with an ongoing addiction to alcohol and drugs, which started in his boy band days.

‘I took everything I could get my hands on: ecstasy, cocaine, drinking. I literally drink like a bottle of vodka the night before I go to rehearsals, so that happens every night,” he says.

Nicole dated Liam Gallagher two years after splitting from Robbie, with the two marrying in 2008 and welcoming their son Gene, now 22.

The former couple divorced in April 2014 after splitting in 2013 when she discovered he had fathered a child with American journalist Liza Ghorbani.

Nicole is now in a ‘beautiful second marriage’ to Stephen Haines and mother to Gene and her daughter Skipper, three.

Robbie, meanwhile, shares four children with his 13-year-old wife Ayda Field.