Robbie Williams’ heartbreaking four-word confession about secret Take That struggle

admitted he didn’t feel loved during his time in Take That and recalled almost being kicked out when he was 16-years-old.

The singer, who turns 51 today (February 13), was the youngest member of the boyband, which also consisted of Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Jason Orange, and Howard Donald. The group were formed in 1990 before Robbie decided to go solo five years later.

Robbie’s early days in the band were far from easy as he recounted his difficult relationship with his manager, Nigel Martin-Smith, who he believed never “loved or liked” him.

Speaking on the documentary, Boybands Forever, Robbie claimed that Martin threatened to kick him out when he was a teenager.

He began: “The early days of Take That were spent in rehearsals. I had no dance background and the routines were so intricate so I would have trouble picking up the steps which would make me look like I was being lazy.”

The Angels hitmaker continued: “This was brought up in not a favourable way. Let’s just say Nigel wasn’t very happy with my application.

“‘It won’t be difficult to kick you out of the band and get someone else with dark hair from Stoke-On-Trent and call him Robbie,’ is what I remember. It made me feel like my place within the band was never safe or guaranteed. I was not loved, not even liked and I was 16.”

This feeling led Robbie to “seek safety in drugs and alcohol”, which he battled with for a large part of his life.

“Nobody goes through that level of fame and comes out the other side sane or not mentally affected by it,” he declared. “Then if you mix that with a manger that wasn’t incredible at man management or emotional management that is a toxic workplace.”

“My way of finding safety came in the form of substances and alcohol. I’d become feral. Lots of coke. Lots of darkness. Lots of comedowns that were hellish. Complete active addiction.”

Responding to the claims, Nigel said that Robbie was “smart and quite clever” to blame his drug-taking on being “in this band where he couldn’t have girlfriends or couldn’t go out”.

At one stage, he claimed Robbie acted like a “w***er” and that the singer painted him as “evil”.

, writing in a lengthy post: “My drug taking was never your fault. My response to the warped world that surrounded me is solely my own. How I chose to self-medicate is and was something that I will be monitoring and dealing with for the whole of my life.

“I just got there quicker due to having the finances while trying in vain to counteract the turbulence of pop stardom’s matrix-bending washing machine.”

He added: “I will also remind you that the person acting like a ‘w***er’ was 16 when he joined the band and 21 when he left. That was the last time I saw you.”