Robbie Williams has revealed he was diagnosed with scurvy after rapid weight loss caused by taking an appetite suppressant — describing the condition as a “17th-century pirate disease.”
The 51-year-old singer explained he shed two stone while on the medication, which he compared to Ozempic, a drug originally used to treat type 2 diabetes but increasingly linked to celebrity weight loss.
However, his dramatic transformation came at a cost.
“I’d stopped eating and I wasn’t getting nutrients,” he told The Mirror, explaining that a lack of vitamin C left him malnourished and led to the rare diagnosis of scurvy.
The former Take That star said his long-standing battle with body dysmorphia distorted how he processed other people’s concerns.
“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.’”
The Rock DJ singer first opened up about taking an Ozempic-like drug in late 2023 in an interview with The Times.
He shared: “Babe, I’m on Ozempic. Well, something like Ozempic. It’s like a Christmas miracle. I’ve gone from 13st 13lb to 12st 1lb.”
Williams described how damaging gaining weight can be to his mental health.
“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,” he continued.
The Rock DJ hitmaker added: “My inner voice talks to me like Katie Hopkins talks about fat people. It’s maddening.”
But alongside the physical toll, he said 2025 began with unexpected emotional struggles, revealing that he suffered his first depressive episode in a decade.
“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,” he told The Mirror in the same interview. “It’s been about ten years... I thought I was at the other end of the arc.”
Williams has also spoken recently about his parents’ health battles.
In 2024, he revealed his mother Janet had been diagnosed with dementia, four years after his father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
