Robbie Williams and Ayda Field's ten-year marriage is built on trust, support and her saving his life
Robbie Williams and Ayda Field began their romance back in 2007 and following their wedding in 2010, the two have appeared to be a picture-perfect couple with an extremely strong marriage. But the couple, who share four children, have not always sailed through life quite so easily. On the contrary, their relationship has seen some serious lows, including Williams's struggles with addiction, which the singer-songwriter would go on to declare he overcame all thanks to his devoted wife.
Williams and Field first met each other at a party in 2006. Far from a meet-cute, it involved Williams being so high on drugs that he began clucking like a chicken, getting severely ill and having to leave. Field, instead of allowing this to push her away, would not just give Williams another chance, she would eventually move in with him for three weeks to help care for him.
Field, a budding Turkish-American actress at the time, met Williams when she was just about to make her big breakthrough with a new role in a sitcom, which was something she had never been offered before. Despite how hard she worked for the opportunity, however, Field turned it down, abandoning her career to be with Williams. Speaking in an interview with The Sun, she once shared, "I was in love with him. He was a lovely, beautiful human and he was just so charming and funny and amazing. He had my heart. He was my soulmate." But even with a bond so strong, the two had to fight for their relationship, Field more so, seeing as Williams made several attempts to leave her before the two eventually tied the knot. In a separate appearance on Postcards from the Edge with Ayda Williams, Field shared, "I was kind of still really in the throes of my career and I remember I was so in love with him but there was no ring on the finger. He definitely had disappointed me in the past so there was this real conflict."
What shifted, it would seem, was a conversation Williams had with Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore, wherein he shared with them how he kept walking away and Diaz pointed retorted with, "Sounds like it’s not over." For Williams, that moment caused everything to click. He stated in his interview with The Sun, "It was like Sliding Doors and I thought we should get married. So I got in a car and went to her door and that’s the moment I committed to her."
But there was far more to Williams hesitance than a simple aversion to settling down. Speaking to the Daily Mail the singer once said, "Left to my own devices, I’m inclined to sabotage everything. I’ve got a disease that wants to kill me and it’s in my head, so I have to guard against that." Having been in and out of rehabs, on top of dealing with anxiety, depression, agoraphobia, numerous other addictions, and even sleepwalking, Williams had plenty of struggles that bogged his mind and made it hard for him to work on a relationship. Field, however, knew she had met her future partner right away and refused to give up on him. And in time, she went from being his lover to being the most stable, reliable person in his life.
Williams's former Take That bandmate Gary Barlow once stated in an interview with Lorraine that despite their personal differences, owing to a falling out that stemmed from Williams's unceremonious departure from the group, Barlow was certain Williams would be fine on his own once he got to meet Field. "I remember the first time I met her," he begins. "I remember coming home to the hotel and phoning everyone up and saying, 'Rob’s going to be alright, I’ve just met his fiancée, she’s going to look after him, she’s going to save his life'." And that, she certainly has. Everything Williams does, Field is by his side, supporting him along the way. She even worked alongside him when he replaced Simon Cowell as a judge on X-Factor between 2011 and 2013, despite having absolutely no experience working as a judge or even being from within the music industry. It was Cowell himself who wanted his longtime friend as the judge on the show and despite many attempts to secure him, Williams only agreed after Field was also offered a spot.
And while the show's decision to bring Field on board seemed odd to many who wondered why she was on the panel at all, her effortless charm quickly won audiences over, soon making her and Williams fan favorites. Little did they know, however, that her presence was the reason Williams was able to present his best self for the show as well. After all, Field wasn't just a support system for Williams: she was his friend, drug counselor, dietitian, manager and everything in between. When he struggles with mental health issues, she's by his side. When he has work appointments, she travels with him. When abnormalities were found in Williams's brain, she got him off any substances, turned him vegan and put him onto yoga and Pilates to improve his recovery process. And to top it all off, she has also been just as much of a rock for their children, caring for them while Williams underwent treatment.
Speaking to The Sun, Williams said, "She makes me want to be a better person. And in the process, I have become a better person." Admittedly, anyone who watched Williams over the years can attest to that. The singer has been described as 'eccentric' by so many publications, and it was several years before most were willing to acknowledge his mental health as being a big part of the puzzle that Williams was often painted as. But Field's presence by his side over the last ten years has shifted the perceptions around Williams, which went from 'odd' to 'charming'. And it has also shed such a light on how important it can be for a person dealing with mental health struggles to have stability, care and access to the right resources in their life.
Williams, for his part, returned Field's support by helping her return to her roots and rebuild her career. The two worked towards getting her back on TV, this time in the UK, and eventually, ensured her spot on X-Factor, one of the biggest roles she has had to date. Ultimately, Williams and Field make one thing abundantly clear: marriage is hard work, and it can often involve sacrifice and pain, but when you see it through hand-in-hand, you can both thrive.