Robbie Williams says he’s got “a 17th-century pirate disease”

Robbie Williams has revealed he has been diagnosed with scurvy, calling it a “17th-century pirate disease”.

• READ MORE: ‘Better Man’ review: Robbie Williams flick might be the strangest music biopic ever

The former Take That singer told The Mirror he was diagnosed with the condition after taking an appetite suppressant, adding that “I’d stopped eating and I wasn’t getting nutrients”.

The NHS says scurvy is “caused by not having enough vitamin C in your diet over a long period of time”, with symptoms ranging from feeling very tired, weak, or irritable, to easily-bruised skin or joint, leg, or muscle pain. Though the condition is rare, the NHS says it’s easy to treat.

Williams described scurvy as “17th-century pirate disease”, continuing that he didn’t take others’ concerns of him looking too thin to be a warning: “With body dysmorphia, when people say they’re worried about how you’re looking, you’re like: ‘I’ve achieved it.’

We spoke to Williams last year for his Better Man biopic, where he and director Michael Gracey discussed the the idea to have a monkey play Williams for the entire biopic.

When Gracey first asked Williams what animal he thought he’d be, Williams told NME: “Lion. I was trying to get some self-worth for myself at the time – and still, every day. Chin out, chest out – lion. And Michael just went: [looks uncertain]. I went: ‘Monkey?’ He went, ‘Yeah, OK,’ and pitched me the idea and I was totally onboard. Because that’s it, innit? I’m a cheeky monkey, aren’t I?

“If they said, on Family Fortunes, ‘We asked 100 people, “What animal is Robbie Williams?”’, the people that don’t hate me would probably go, ‘He’s a monkey.’”

Williams, who is due to tour at the same time as Oasis’ highly anticipated reunion tour, has called their tour “nostalgia on steroids”.

“Liam’s voice is peerless,” he added. “And he was, and is the voice of a generation. So I think that for British people – and Manchester – it will be a very important moment. Hopefully it’ll be healing for the lads too.”

In other news, Robbie Williams says covering Blur’s ‘Parklife’ with Danny Dyer “made no sense on paper”.

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