5 things we learnt from Robbie Williams' explosive Netflix doc

Robbie Williams' highly anticipated docuseries has officially dropped on Netflix – and nothing was off limits.

The four-part series kicked off by showing a 16-year-old Robbie joining Take That alongside Gary Barlow, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Howard Donald.

Despite being an instant hit, Robbie left the band five years later. The remaining four members parted ways the following year.

Now, the 49-year-old is looking back at his lifetime spent in the spotlight, with never-seen-before footage.

Robbie Williams | Official Trailer | Netflixwww.youtube.com

Here are five of the major talking points from the show:

What happened between him and collaborator Guy Chambers?

In one of the eps, Robbie shared how the partnership between him and Guy Chambers started to break down in the early 2000s, explaining how he felt restricted when his song 'Come Undone' was dismissed.

The pair went on to part ways when Robbie addressed that he wanted their partnership to end.

"He melted and now there’s a different Guy. And maybe there’s a different me too… I think Guy thought, 'We are a band called Robbie Williams,' but I needed full control as much as possible," he explained.

The pair later reunited and worked on albums including Swings Both Ways, Under the Radar volumes one to three and The Christmas Present.

His feud with Gary Barlow

"It seemed like there was one person being managed in Take That, and it was Gary Barlow," Robbie candidly revealed in the series. "It was all geared around him and, as young person, I would have been jealous of that. I suppose a lot of me resented him.”

Robbie reacted to resurfaced footage which showed him making a joke that his former Take That band member "is dead".

The first ep saw Robbie's daughter ask who he hated most in the band to which he confirmed it was Gary.

"I’m sorry I treated Gary like that," he said.

His relationship with Geri Halliwell

Robbie dated Spice Girls' Geri Halliwell in the early 90s, while he was at Alcoholics Anonymous.

At the time, Robbie believed that she was calling the paparazzi on the pair when they were out and about. However, he now takes that back.

"Now I don't think that's true for one second, but at the time I did believe it," he said. "It just goes to show what being in the spotlight can do to you psychologically when you can't trust anybody."

Why he left Take That...

Robbie shared the real reason behind leaving Take That, after rumours it was due to addiction issues.

Speaking to the cameras, he revealed: "The sense that I wasn't ready or capable to fulfil the role that was being asked of me was palpable.

"One day I went in for rehearsals, and then at lunchtime, they said, 'Rob, we need to have a band meeting.' I said to the boys I just couldn't be there anymore.

"Then they said, 'Look, we wanna see if we can do this tour as a four-piece. What do you think?'

"And in the end, 'What do you think?' was me deciding to leave Take That."

Opening up about his struggles...

Robbie bravely opened up about his past struggles with drugs and alcohol, saying he "was ingesting everything [he] could get [his] hands on - ecstasy, cocaine, drinking."

He went on to say that he drank "like a bottle of vodka" a night before going into rehearsals.

"Everybody knew I was in trouble, but they didn't care, I'd gone past the point of no return," he said. "My life had spiralled out of control so severely that my manager understood what needed to happen, I needed to be carted off to rehab.

He continued: "I used to drink and do drugs because it helped me not feel this way, when you strip that away all the everything comes up that you’ve been suppressing and I’ve been suppressing that for years. I’m depressed and I’m mentally ill."

Robbie, who was diagnosed with depression in his early twenties, said: "People at this point still thought that if good things are happening to you and you're successful, what is there to be upset about?

"I had to go on stage in front of thousands of people feeling like you’re on the hundredth floor, the room’s burning and you either stay in the room or burn to death or you jump out of the window to your death. It’s that uncomfortable."

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