For Generation Z, Robbie Williams, 50, will always be the man who tears off his skin and muscles in the controversial video for Rock DJ, a song released three years after Angels, the single that cemented his solo career. For millennials, Williams will always be the Take That member who quit one of the most popular boy bands in history at its peak. He says he was “asked” to leave. In any case, his rock-and-roll energy and his addiction to drugs and alcohol did not sit well with a band that succeeded on sugary songs, tender looks and a choreography designed to make fans swoon.

“I was ingesting everything I could get my hands on -ecstasy, cocaine, drinking. I’m literally drinking like a bottle of vodka a night before going into rehearsals, so that’s happening every night,’ he says in the Netflix docuseries Robbie Williams, where he admits he began dating Geri Halliwell, the redhead from the Spice Girls, while he was attending Alcoholics Anonymous. “They told me not to date anyone in the first year, and rightly so. If I couldn’t look after a cactus, imagine a person,” he says in the documentary, which reached number one on Netflix in 22 countries and had 5.5 million views just one month after its premiere. Currently on the Britpop Live 2026 tour, he will perform on July 10 at the Bilbao BBK Live festival in the northern Spanish city. Does he have any surprises planned? “The surprise is that I keep showing up and emitting light. I’m a frequency and some people like to tune into it. The surprise is that I still exist on that frequency,” he says, speaking with EL PAÍS.

At the start of the trailer for his biopic, Better man, he is heard saying “I’m Robbie Williams, one of the biggest pop stars in the world.” In the same way that the musician and designer Pharrell Williams changed the rules of the genre by telling his story with Lego bricks in Piece by Piece (2024), Williams is portrayed by a computer-generated monkey. “I’m an unusual person who likes unusual things. When director Michael Gracey told me the idea, before he finished the sentence I’d already said yes,” he explains.

Is he exaggerating when he claims to be one of pop’s greats? The numbers back him up. He has sold more than 80 million albums worldwide and has 18 Brit Awards. But fame and success brought shadows. At age 20 he experienced his first depressive episode and, after more than a decade symptom-free, he admitted in early 2025 that he had started the year with a relapse. It’s no surprise that his songs, except for “the silly danceable ones,” deal with an ongoing mental struggle now also reflected in his painting. Two years ago he opened his solo art exhibition, Confessions of a Crowded Mind, at Moco Museum Barcelona after debuting it in Amsterdam.

Williams is music, art and… football. Last year the Briton premiered, together with Laura Pausini, Desire, the new official FIFA anthem. “ I wanted to create something that captures all of it – the passion, the nerves, the pride and the majesty of that feeling just before kick-off. Football and music have always meant the world to me and bringing them together on this kind of stage gives me goosebumps,” he stated after being named FIFA Music Ambassador. And if there’s one thing he’s an expert at, it’s giving his millions of fans goosebumps with his songs.

You behave as you were raised. Sometimes, if those behaviors are toxic, you learn they are and do the exact opposite. For now everything is fine. My children are kind, compassionate, sensitive and affectionate”

Did you know I spent part of my teenage years sleeping with you? Although my favorite member of Take That was Howard Donald, my mother made a mistake and bought me a pillow with your face on it. That was the universe messing around, saying: ‘It’s this one, darling: you should be in love with him!’

You like covering Living La Vida Loca, by Ricky Martin. Why don’t you pivot and become a Latin-inflected Williams who does twerking? I don’t know if I’d do twerking, but I would definitely make Latin music. I have a banger on my computer called Te Quiero, but there was a copyright issue because it sounded like another song. If I manage to release it I’ll be moving my hips a lot on stage, though I don’t think I’ll be twerking. My hamstrings are too tight for that.

Releasing an album called Britpop when that musical genre seems like a thing of the past is bold. Was it a conscious decision, a joke or a fit of nostalgia? There are two reasons. The first is very simple: I’m British and I make pop. And the other is that I do a lot of things that are a kind of quiet trolling. I wasn’t part of the britpop movement! In fact, I was excluded. This is a way to wind up the right people. And, looking at the comments, I’ve achieved my aim.

You always seem to feel the need to explain yourself. Do you feel misunderstood? I recently read a quote from Marcus Aurelius about stoicism and the freedom you get when you stop feeling the need to explain yourself. But if I had that freedom, I wouldn’t have an act. Explaining myself is part of who I am. I feel like a journalist with a single subject: myself. And I’m reporting live from inside my brain at all moments.

I do a lot of things that are a kind of quiet trolling. I wasn’t part of the britpop movement! In fact, I was excluded. This is a way to wind up the right people. And, looking at the comments, I’ve achieved my aim”

You are the artist with the most number-one albums in the U.K., but you want more. Does ambition ever end? I have experienced what it feels like to have no purpose. There were moments in my career when I decided I didn’t want to do this anymore. And it’s not good: it’s a kind of death. I love having a mission, providing for my family and looking after myself. I’m incredibly grateful to be able to be creative and tell people: “I’ve done these things and this is why I did these things. And I’d like you to enjoy them.” Everything revolves around purpose.

What is that purpose? The main thing is to provide for my family, make sure they are financially sound and that my grandchildren are too. I think the only thing you can offer as a parent is safety, and teaching them how to behave is safety too. But today it seems the only thing that really protects people is money, unfortunately. So my North Star is that, and then underneath that there’s all of the narcissistic stuff where there is need and wants and attention and to be told that I’m a good and clever boy…

Miley Cyrus said she didn’t want to tour because it could affect her sobriety. Is that hard for you? I haven’t drunk in 25 years. That part isn’t difficult for me. The difficult part is dealing with life as it is. But now I trust myself. I don’t think that because I have a day of anxiety I’ll go out and do cocaine and relapse. I’ll simply sit with it and live with it. I know myself and trust myself more than before.

What would you have done differently from your time in Take That? I probably wouldn’t have started drinking or done drugs. But then again, I’m all of these things because I did. I don’t know, if I had a time machine, that I would change anything. I just wouldn’t be as affected by mentally ill grown ups.

At that time it was hard for someone coming from a boy band to be taken seriously. Would you say you paved the way so people like Harry Styles could run? I don’t think I changed anything for anybody. Maybe if the people that come next see how I go about things or see how I went about things and take a little bit from me, like I did with the people that came before me, I think that’s more apt. But it is very interesting how the zeitgeist changes when it comes to what’s cool. They used to tell me I was embarrassing, that I shouldn’t exist. I remember a time when the idea of Robbie Williams playing Glastonbury seemed so wrong, and how dare you? Now it feels like Harry’s allowed to be cool. And I can’t help thinking: ‘How is he allowed a free ride?’. They can criticize us for being on stage saying: “I’m a bit gay, but without sucking cocks.” I guess I’m a bit gay! You conform to me because I’m not pandering to you.

In many families in the north of England there is difficulty talking about emotions. As a father, what do you do at home to change that fear of verbalizing feelings? You behave as you were raised. Sometimes, if those behaviors are toxic, you learn they are and do the exact opposite. For now everything is fine. My children are kind, compassionate, sensitive and affectionate.

You said the nineties weren’t a bad time to be going through a rough patch. How do you think living through that in the era of social media would have affected you? I wonder that sometimes. I had the freedom to go out and do what I wanted because there were no mobile phones or social media, but I abused that freedom. On the one hand, it would have been a nightmare for different reasons but, on the other, maybe I wouldn’t have thrown pills and potions into my system so liberally in front of people.

Bad Bunny invites celebrities to La Casita. Who would you invite? Michael Bublé, Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, Gary Barlow, Donald MacLeod… I’d love to invite Jason Orange [from Take That] but we haven’t been able to find him…

Really? That’s what you hear.

When are you going to stop entertaining us? It must be exhausting to be constantly entertaining. I don’t know. It’s a symbiotic relationship. I want them and I need them. Some people enjoy what I need and some seem to need what I have to offer. I doubt that will ever end. I just hope I’m healthy enough to carry on. I’ll tell Howard I spoke to you.

If you invite Howard to La Casita, can I go? I’ll try.

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Julie and Mark are siblings. They are traveling together across France during their college summer holiday. One night they are alone in a cabin near the beach. They decide it would be interesting and fun to make love — a new experience. Julie is on birth control pills and Mark also uses a condom, for safety. Both enjoy making love, but they decide not to do it again. They keep that night as a special secret, which makes them feel even closer to each other. How does that make you feel? Was it right for them to make love?

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt posed this scenario as part of an experiment to show that moral judgment is not always rational. Although the story had no negative consequences such as disease or emotional harm, most survey respondents judged the action to be wrong. When asked for their reasons, many could not offer logical arguments and simply expressed disgust.

Sex between siblings provokes near-universal rejection, but would it be different if Julie and Mark were cousins? Suddenly the issue becomes much less clear. Cousin relationships have been interpreted very differently across cultures and eras. In some places — such as China, South Korea or the United States — marriage between cousins is banned or even criminalized. However, in regions like the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa, these unions are common and represent between 20% and 68% of marriages, depending on the country.

Throughout European history, such marriages were very common, especially among the elite, because they strengthened family and patrimonial alliances. It was not until the second half of the 19th century that opposition to cousin unions began to solidify, when debates emerged within the scientific and medical communities about their possible genetic risks.

Charles Darwin, for example, was one of the first to raise the issue, because it touched him personally. He married his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood, and they had 10 children, of whom only seven survived past the age of 10. In particular, the death of his daughter Annie at age 10 from tuberculosis was a devastating blow that intensified his concerns about the negative impact of reproduction between close relatives.

In an effort to better understand the phenomenon, Darwin conducted experiments with plants in his greenhouse at Down, England. He found that cross-fertilization was more beneficial for the health and abundance of plant species than self-fertilization. From these experiments he developed the concept of inbreeding depression, which explains how consanguineous unions increase the likelihood of transmitting hereditary diseases to offspring.

Today we know that the risk that children of first cousins will have serious genetic disorders is relatively low — between 4% and 6%, compared with 2% or 3% for unrelated couples. This risk is comparable to that faced by children of mothers over 34 years old. However, dangers rise significantly when consanguineous unions are repeated over several generations, as occurred in the Darwin and Wedgwood families.

It is curious that, if cousin pairings carry certain risks, they were nonetheless so widely practiced. Something similar happens in nature. Animals rarely mate with siblings, but they do not show the same aversion to cousins. A 2021 meta-analysis published in Nature Ecology & Evolution revealed that many animal species do not systematically avoid inbreeding.

A curious example is the prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster), which shows a clear preference for pairing with close kin. In one experiment, females were given the option to interact with males of varying degrees of relatedness: fathers, brothers, cousins and unrelated males. Results showed that females spent more time with their first cousins and chose them more often for mating. Moreover, copulations between cousins were more intense, as if there were greater chemistry between them.

In many species, mate choice is influenced by the environment in which individuals are raised, since most animals avoid reproducing with those with whom they shared childhood. In the vole experiment, all females were separated from males at birth, so their choices were based solely on genetic similarities.

Rodents and other animals produce pheromones derived from genes known as the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). This highly variable group of genes produces proteins unique to each individual, creating an ‘olfactory signature’ that allows them to distinguish one another. The closer the relative, the more similar their MHC — and therefore their scent. This helps animals identify kinship degree and, in the case of the voles, to prefer their cousins.

This behavior may seem contradictory. Shouldn’t animals always avoid inbreeding? The answer is not so simple, because extreme outbreeding can also be harmful. A classic example is the Tatra chamois in Central Europe. Decades ago, to try to save a local population well adapted to the cold, specimens of a subspecies from the Sinai, in the warm Middle East, were introduced. The groups mated successfully, but the result was an ecological disaster: the hybrids inherited the reproductive clock of their southern relatives. Instead of giving birth in spring, females began birthing in February. The young, unable to withstand Europe’s harsh winter freezes, froze to death, ultimately causing the extinction of the entire population.

Genes evolve in a specific environment, enabling individuals to survive and reproduce effectively in their habitats. When populations from different environments interbreed, offspring can lose these genetic advantages, becoming less fit for either original environment. That is why nature often favors a middle ground.

This also applies to humans. A study in Iceland that analyzed data from more than 160,000 couples born between 1800 and 1965 found that third- and fourth-cousin pairs had more children than unrelated couples. Theoretical models suggest that this level of kinship offers an optimal balance between the risks of inbreeding and the benefits of genetic proximity.

Nonetheless, this article does not aim to advocate for or against cousin relationships, or any other romantic choice. In humans, partner choice cannot be reduced to the genetic viability of offspring. It is simply interesting to observe how human culture and morals often have non-arbitrary foundations. It is estimated that, over history, roughly 80% of human unions occurred between people with some degree of consanguinity. We now understand that this pattern is not exclusive to our species, but is shared with many others in the animal kingdom.

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