12 November 2023 , 20:35
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Sophie Ellis-Bextor has apologised to Robbie Williams after being ‘rude’ to him at the start of her career.
The Murder On The Dancefloor singer was just 19 when she was asked to support Robbie on his first solo tour. But she reportedly declined the slot and went on to brand him a “tart” and a “prat” leading to a feud between the pair that lasted years.
Robbie is said to hit back with a personal insult, saying Sophie, now 44, had a “face like a satellite dish and my nan’s ankles”. While the pair have since patched things up and revealed they had even recorded some songs together, their fall out resurfaced when a clip of Sophie was shown on Robbie’s new self-titled Netflix documentary about his life.
Although she has already apologised to Robbie privately, Sophie took to Instagram to say sorry again. Posting a video of herself talking to the camera, she said: “In 1998, aged 19, I was very rude about @robbiewilliams and the clip of me being horrid is included in his brilliant Netflix documentary. I didn’t need to see it again to feel bad. I genuinely have felt crappy about how I spoke for the 25 years since I said it.”
Sophie Ellis-Bextor revealed she was 'very rude' to Robbie Williams when she was 19 (Samir Hussein/WireImage)
She has since apologised to Robbie and met his 'amazing' wife Ayda and 'gorgeous kids' (Instagram)Giving her reasons for the Robbie insults, mum-of-five Sophie continued: “I thought it was clever to be gobby back then, but it wasn’t cool then and it’s even worse to see it now. Not proud. Not how I’m raising my kids.
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"That being said, I wanted to reach out and apologise so a few years back I found an address for Robbie and wrote him a note to say how sorry I was. He was gracious and very forgiving. We ended up meeting last summer and I spent time with him, his amazing wife @aydafieldwilliams and his gorgeous kids. It was lovely to be able to become friends and we have now made some songs together.”
Sophie ended the post by saying: “I suppose the moral of this story is, as ever, be kind. To own your mistakes. And if you’re ever cruel, try to make sure it’s not filmed as it’s bloody brutal to see sharp tongued teenage me after all these years! Yikes. P.S - watch the documentary. It’s great."
Fans were quick to comment underneath with many praising Sophie for owning her past mistakes and pointing out Robbie hasn’t exactly been an angel in the past himself. One wrote: “Sophie but... why did he put this in the documentary since you said sorry ages ago? You don’t have to make this video to explain this again. Really..”
Another fan said: “He [Robbie] did say quite a horrible thing about you too at the time, so no need to feel embarrassed about saying something about him.” A third commented: “I did see it, and was a bit surprised. However, 19 seems to be the age when we act our worst. You’ve owned it, apologised, and grown from it.”
A fourth followed reflected: “The 90s were toxic and we were all encouraged to be vile – I look back on that time and squirm and I was a lot older than you x.” While a fifth added: “There is not one person in the world who can say they didn’t say things they regret when they were 19! I love that you own this. However, if people can’t watch and think ‘oh that’s a 19 year old being 19’ then it says more about them now than it does about you back then. Sending you love.”