PLACING his hand on her stomach, Robbie Williams told Nicole Appleton: “This baby is saving my life.”
Take That turned solo star Robbie and All Saints singer Nicole were secretly preparing to become parents for the first time — after meeting backstage on Top Of The Pops in December 1997.
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But in scenes which play out in his new biopic Better Man, Nicole, who was four months pregnant at the time, aborted the baby after caving in to pressure from her record company.
Fast-forward 25 years to the film’s London premiere this week and Robbie, 50, who now shares four kids with beloved actress wife Ayda Field, dedicated an afterparty performance of his 1999 hit She’s The One to first love Nicole.
The biopic, which hits cinemas on Boxing Day, sees Robbie depicted as a CGI chimpanzee — after he revealed that he felt like a performing monkey during his years on stage.
Robbie, born in Stoke-on-Trent, burst on to the pop scene aged 16 in Take That alongside Gary Barlow, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Howard Donald.
But his rise to fame — later going solo in 1995 — was accompanied by drink and drug abuse and fuelled by an insatiable appetite to “make it” after watching his own father, Peter, perform as an entertainer.
‘In no fit state’
Away from the spot-light, though, he fell madly for Nicole — who he recently called a “complete angel”.
But the Nineties poster couple’s relationship crashed in 1999 after the abortion.
Robbie says he and Nicole, now 49, both approved the biopic script — and he praised his ex in front of LA-born star Ayda at the film afterparty.
Robbie, whose life was also the subject of a self-titled Netflix docu-series last year, said: “A round of applause for Nicole Appleton.
“People keep coming to me saying I’m very brave for doing the documentary and the film. But I’m on the f***ing spectrum — I am not picking up any cues of what should or shouldn’t be said.
“I’m not being brave — I just don’t know when to shut up. Nicole, on the other hand, is f***ing brave — allowing us to tell that bit of the story.”
Nicole, played by Aussie actress Raechelle Banno in the film, supported her ex at the premiere as she hit the red carpet in a gown to match.
She was joined at the event by her sister and fellow All Saints singer Natalie Appleton.
Posing with her business-man husband Stephen Haines on Instagram, Nicole wrote: “What a night! Such a rollercoaster. Loved it.”
The biopic sees Robbie and Nicole holidaying on a yacht and attending red carpet events as they become a power couple.
But his need for fame takes over and his character in the film is seen leaving Nicole at an All Saints party to head off for a night out with Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher — who would later marry then divorce Nicole.
Glimmer of hope
Robbie and Nicole’s relationship did see a glimmer of hope when they are portrayed in the film decorating a nursery after Nicole discovers she is expecting their baby.
Yet their journey to becoming parents is cut short when Nicole is seen visiting an abortion clinic.
Robbie now tells how the pair broke down in tears after an earlier premiere of the film, in Los Angeles.
He said before the London screening: “She was made to have an abortion of our child. It’s rough and triggering. This thing about Nic is the most difficult bit of the film for me.
“Everybody else in the movie — they did something bad and I don’t mind throwing them under the bus.
“But when it comes to Nic, I was the person that did the bad thing — not talking about her getting an abortion. I didn’t do that. But she’s wonderful, kind and brave and wants her part of the story shown.
She was made to have an abortion of our child. It’s rough and triggering. This thing about Nic is the most difficult bit of the film for me
Robbie Williams
“So I FaceTimed her after she came out of the screening and it was a blub-fest. It was tears, tears, tears. In the middle of being able to talk, all we could say was, ‘Triggered.’ ”
At the LA screening, Robbie said: “Hopefully this is a healing exper-ience for me — and for her because she didn’t deserve the version of me that she got back then. I feel great shame that I didn’t represent myself in the best way because she deserves the best, and didn’t get it.”
In the Netflix four-parter last year, Robbie told how he was “in no fit state” to commit to Nicole — but how, fresh from leaving Take That in 1995, it had been inevitable their “paths would cross” given their pop careers.
Nicole was born in Ontario, Canada, one of four sisters, and grew up in Toronto before moving to London to pursue a pop career.
In 1996, sisters Nicole and Natalie joined girlband All Saints, formed three years earlier by Melanie Blatt and Shaznay Lewis.
They released single I Know Where It’s At in 1997 and it reached No4 in the UK.
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But it was next single Never Ever that catapulted them to fame in November 1997 — topping the charts in the UK and Australia.
Of meeting Nicole, Robbie said in his Netflix series: “She was kind and fun and sweet, a good soul.”
Just months after they met, Robbie popped the question in a phone call while away touring.
But looking at old footage in the Netflix series, he added: “I guess I’m trying to convince myself I’m the kind of person that is ready for commitment. I couldn’t look after myself.
“I was in no fit state to offer myself as a partner and the relationship ended a few months after this.”
In 2002, Nicole bravely revealed for the first time, in her autobiography Together, that she had the abortion after falling pregnant by Robbie.
‘I wanted to kill myself’
She wrote: “I couldn’t believe what I had done. I wanted to kill myself.”
But Nicole added at the time: “Writing about it made me confront it all, and I’m so glad I did.
“It was there, but I’d never told anyone the details. It was like I was saying, ‘Now do you understand why my confidence disappeared?’ ”
In 2000, Nicole got engaged to Robbie’s chart rival Liam Gallagher and the pair welcomed son Gene, now 23, after 18 months together.
But just months before she gave birth, Robbie challenged Liam to a fight, while on stage at the Brit Awards after scooping Best British Single for She’s The One.
As fans cheered, he looked down the lens of the camera and said: “Are you going to do it or are you going to p***y out, you wimp?”
Nicole married Liam on Valentine’s Day 2008 at London’s Westminster Register Office.
Marriage shattered
But their marriage was shattered in 2013 when it emerged that Liam had fathered a daughter with US journalist Liza Ghorbani.
Nicole then finally found happiness with her now husband Stephen — giving birth to daughter Skipper in 2020 and marrying a year later.
Meanwhile Robbie is finally happy, healthy and at peace after being sober for more than 20 years — and being wed to Ayda since 2010.
He now says he “got lucky” meeting Ayda and that she is the reason he is “still alive today”.
Robbie adds: “I came from a deficit of brokenness and a vulnerability so severe it was impossible most days to live between my ears. It’s better now.
“By the grace of God or whatever it was, the universe presented me with somebody that was so beautiful, that I look up to so much.
“I’m getting better and better every day, thanks to grounding, children and my wife.”
Ayda has even made Robbie finally love Christmas.
He says: “She is the spirit of Christmas, she’s given me the gift.”
At the London premiere’s afterparty, changing the final chorus of She’s The One to, “She’s my children’s mum”, Robbie gazed up at wife Ayda who looked on proudly.
Ending with a cover of Frank Sinatra’s My Way, he added: “Thank you for coming to the proudest night of my life. I am full of joy and gratitude.”
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