Robbie Williams smiled through the pain as he attended the premiere of his biopic Better Man on Wednesday, after revealing his beloved mother Janet’s dementia diagnosis.
The singer, 50, was joined by his wife Ayda Field at the premiere in Leicester Square, London, as the couple looked in good spirits as they walked the red carpet together.
Robbie looked dapper for the event as he wore a gray striped blazer with silver glitter embellishments on the shoulders and matching trousers.
Ayda, 45, looked glamorous in a black fitted blazer and matching trousers, adding height to her frame with a pair of heels.
Robbie’s ex-girlfriend Nicole Appleton also attended the premiere and looked stunning in a red dress with short sleeves and a high collar.
The All Saints star let her blonde locks fall loose over her shoulders and completed her look with a red handbag.
Robbie Williams smiled through the pain as he attended the premiere of his biopic Better Man on Wednesday after revealing his beloved mother Janet’s dementia diagnosis (pictured with wife Ayda Field)
Robbie was also supported at the Leicester Square premiere by his ex-girlfriend Nicole Appleton (left) and former This Morning presenter Holly Willoughby (right)
Holly Willoughby turned heads at the screening, posing on the red carpet in a black mini dress with a plunging sweetheart neckline.
The former This Morning presenter, 43, enhanced her frame with black heels and accessorized with a matching clutch bag.
Also among those in attendance was Nicola Roberts, who dressed warmly in a checked jacket with a black faux fur collar and black trousers.
Lisa Snowdon put on a leggy show in a pair of black leather thigh-high boots which she wore with a black blazer and matching top.
Vicky McClure opted for a black leather jacket which she wore over a matching corset top and trousers, along with a pair of black boots.
Laura Whitmore wore a black long-sleeved mini dress, which she paired with thigh-high leather boots and a pink and black handbag.
Andy Serkis looked dapper in a black suit and dark blue patterned shirt as he attended the premiere with his wife Lorraine Ashbourne.
Nicole Appleton’s sister Natalie opted for a more casual look than her sibling as she wore a white shirt and navy blue and white striped trousers.
The singer, 50, was joined by his wife Ayda Field at the premiere in Leicester Square, London, as the couple looked in good spirits as they walked the red carpet together
Robbie looked dapper for the event as he wore a gray striped blazer with silver embellishment on the shoulders and matching trousers
Ayda, 45, looked glamorous in a black fitted blazer and matching trousers and added height to her body with a pair of heels
Robbie revealed that his mother Janet has been diagnosed with dementia. The diagnosis comes four years after the singer revealed his father Pete had Parkinson’s (pictured together in 2019)
Robbie and Nicole dated in the 1990s and she can be seen in the Better Man movie, where she is played by Raechelle Banno.
Nicole revealed her side of their 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.
Robbie’s mother Janet’s dementia diagnosis comes four years after the singer revealed his father Pete had Parkinson’s.
When asked about his parents’ thoughts on the film, Robbie shared HELLO! ‘My mother currently has dementia – like my grandmother in the film – and my father has Parkinson’s and can’t get out of bed. So I’m in a different part of my life now.’
Nicola Roberts dressed in a checked jacket with a black faux fur lining and paired it with black trousers
Andy Serkis looked dapper in a black suit and dark blue patterned shirt as he attended the premiere with his wife Lorraine Ashbourne
Laura Whitmore wore a black long-sleeved mini dress, which she paired with thigh-high leather boots and a pink and black handbag
In 2020, Robbie revealed that his father Pete had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, admitting at the time that he was battling “anxiety and panic” over his father’s diagnosis.
He told The Mirror that getting diagnosed during Covid made things extra difficult because he and his wife Ayda and their children were thousands of miles away from his parents in Los Angeles.
‘We have a lot of family problems at the moment. My father has Parkinson’s, my mother-in-law, whom I love very much, has a very serious disease. We can’t get to them. My father is thousands of miles away.’
Robbie added of his mother at the time: “My mother is just a year short of 80 and she’s isolated and I can see things turning around in her head and her eyes going.”
The former Take That star was joined on stage many times by his father Pete, who is also a singer.
Robbie’s parents separated in 1977. The pair also share daughter Sally, who is 11 years older than Robbie.
The pop star previously shared his concerns for both his parents during an interview with The Sun, saying: “They’re at that age where they’re very vulnerable to what’s going on, so I speak to them on the phone every day.”
Robbie and his wife Ayda, 45, have a lot to contend with, as Ayda also recently revealed that her mother Gwen’s cervical cancer has returned, following previous battles with breast cancer and a diagnosis of Parkinson’s and Lupus.
Speaking on her show Loose Women last month, Ayda told her co-stars: ‘This is really hard for me to talk about.
“My mother – we don’t talk about phases in our house – and I say all this after discussing with my mother that I might discuss what she was going through.
“My mom said, ‘I really want you to tell this story, I want to make sure it’s positive. I’m going to do my best and I’m going to make this positive.’
‘My mother unfortunately had a recurrence of her cervical cancer. She is also a breast cancer survivor.”
She became emotional and explained, “So the cancer has come back and we got the news a few months ago and I’ve just been processing it privately.
“But as we talked about this today, with it being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I realized that I really want to always be authentic when I’m here, and authentic with my group of friends.
“It felt like this was an appropriate time to talk about the struggle behind closed doors in our home.”
Robbie has been working on Better Man since 2021 – the film is scheduled for release on December 26.
The singer is played in the film by actor Jonno Davies in the form of a CGI monkey. While Jonno takes on the role of the younger Robbie, the singer can be heard in voiceover and later plays the older version of himself.
The official synopsis reads: ‘Better Man is based on the true story of the meteoric rise, dramatic fall and remarkable revival of British pop superstar Robbie Williams, one of the greatest entertainers of all time.
“Under the visionary direction of Michael Gracey (“The Greatest Showman”), the film is uniquely told from Williams’ perspective, capturing his signature humor and indomitable spirit.
‘It follows Robbie’s journey from childhood, to the youngest member of hit boy band Take That, to his unparalleled achievements as a record-breaking solo artist – while facing the challenges that stratospheric fame and success can bring.’