Robbie Williams Saved My Life, Geri Halliwell Says

Geri Halliwell has often talked about her struggle with an eating disorder and the unhealthy body image she used to have when she was younger, but she never addressed the question of who helped her get over it. Sitting down with Piers Morgan for an interview, the singer revealed her best friend Robbie Williams saved her life, as the Daily Mail can confirm.

When she broke in the spotlight as Ginger Spice, Geri was arguably the plumpest of all the girls, a thing that terribly marked her and would eventually leave a huge dent in her self-confidence. She developed bulimia, which got so bad after she left the band and embarked on a solo career that, at one point, she dropped seven stone (about 44 kg). She was, as fans would remember, all skin and bones and muscle. Luckily, she had Robbie to help her see she had a serious problem.

“I was worried I’d get fat. I would binge and then felt fatter and would make myself sick. It was awful,” Geri said on Morgan’s show, Life Stories. “Robbie knew about my bulimia and he advised me to get help. He told me to go to rehab and that possibly saved my life. The bulimia would have got worse without it. I will always be grateful to him, always,” the singer added.

She probably wouldn’t be alive to tell the story if it hadn’t been for Robbie, who was the only person who could understand what she was going through. “I became really close to Robbie after leaving the Spice Girls and it was a very poignant friendship. I was lonely and felt he was the only person on the planet who could understand me because of his experiences with Take That. We understood each other. But I didn’t really go out with him. I am happy and healthy now,” Geri added.

Indeed, Geri’s figure is a far cry from her tiny, emaciated self of a few years back. She is now dedicated to living healthily, which is why she combines a balanced diet with reasonable, regular exercise. Still, she occasionally went to an Overeaters Anonymous meeting, just to make sure she maintained a healthy relationship with food, she said in the same interview.