Agoraphobia left Robbie Williams housebound for three years

Robbie Williams faced his agoraphobia fears on Sunday night (14Jul19) to close out the British Summer Time concert series in London’s Hyde Park.
The former Take That star recently told The Sun newspaper his fear of the outdoors and open spaces left him housebound for three years, admitting he couldn’t face the public.
“My career had gone stratospheric and taken me to Mars, and I needed some time to get my equilibrium back and get myself back together,” he said.
“It was my body and mind telling me I shouldn’t go anywhere, that I couldn’t do anything. It was telling me to just wait, so I literally just sat and waited. I was agoraphobic from around 2006 to 2009. Those years were just spent wearing a cashmere kaftan, eating Kettle Chips, growing a beard and staying in.”
And he confesses he turned down lucrative work offers because he didn’t want to leave home: “I remember they offered me £15 million to take over from Simon Cowell on American Idol, plus a big gig in the States, but I turned it down because I wasn’t leaving the sofa at the time. I just couldn’t,” he explained.
It took The Killers track Human to bring Robbie out of his funk – he reveals the lyrics to the song helped him get out of the house.
“I remember listening to that Killers song and something in that moment made me think, ‘I had better get my a**e in gear, put an album together and tour’,” he said.
Robbie sought out therapy and gradually got his life and career back on track – thanks in part to his former Take That bandmates: “It wasn’t an easy process, it was like having a car crash and then learning how to walk again. If it wasn’t for Take That, and rejoining them, I don’t know if I’d have come back at all. Initially, I got to hide in plain sight – I could hide behind my boys. They helped an awful lot.”