Robbie Williams jokes he ‘wants to be gay’ in Guardian interview

Former Take That star Robbie Williams has reflected on long-standing rumours about his sexuality in an interview with The Guardian newspaper, seemingly joking that he has “done everything but suck a c**k”.

The “Angels” singer, who is promoting his biopic movie Better Man – in which he is played by a CGI chimpanzee – told The Guardian that he was “sad” over rumours that he had a “secret gay lover” during his time in Take That.

Better Man touches on the rumours regarding Williams’ sexuality, which reached fever pitch in 2004 when People ran a story falsely claiming that the singer was “deceiving the public” by suggesting he had sexual relationships with women.

The claims included that Williams had a “secret gay lover” and performed a sex act on a man in a Manchester club toilet.

Williams sued the publication in 2005, which apologised and paid “substantial” damages to the star.

Speaking to The Guardian, Williams said he was “sad” over the allegations as they were untrue.

“I was annoyed… I was more sad. Not about gay accusations because look, I’ve done everything but suck a c**k. Honestly, you’ve never met somebody that wants to be gay as much as me,” he quipped.

“I’m a Port Vale fan and it’s like somebody going ‘well you’re a Liverpool fan’… And me saying ‘no I’m not, I’m a Port Vale fan’. When somebody says you’re a Liverpool fan a hundred times it’s like ‘I’m not a f**king Liverpool fan, why do people think I’m a Liverpool fan?!’.”

However, he went onto suggest that denying the allegations presented a conundrum; he wanted to be seen as an ally, but wanted to “protect” his “authenticity”.

“You want to be an ally while at the same time protecting your own authenticity and your own life,” he said.

“Besides, if I want to suck a c**k, I’ll suck a c**k. Who’s going to fu**ing stop me? My wife? The beard!”

Elsewhere in the interview, the “Let Me Entertain You” singer suggested that performing in LGBTQ+ clubs during his Take That days was a “safe place” for him.

“Where I’m from we do two things really well; kindness and violence… When you went out of an evening it was highly likely that violence was in your near future. And you always had to be hyper aware of who you’d p***ed off,” he explained.

“When I went into the gay world there was none of that. There was total acceptance and humour and gay abandon. And safety. That’s what I take with me to this day; it was an incredibly safe place for me to grow up.”

Back in 2013, Robbie Williams caught flack for describing himself as “49 per cent homosexual”.

“I love musical theatre and a lot of the other things that are often associated with gays. I am 49 per cent homosexual and sometimes as far as 50 per cent. However, that would imply that I enjoy having a particular sort of fun, which I don’t,” he reportedly told the Daily Star.

Better Man is released in UK cinemas on 26 December.

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