Robbie Williams is enduring the “manopause”.
Robbie Williams is enduring the ‘manopause’
The former Take That singer, who will turn 50 in February, says the condition has left him fighting baldness, a plummeting libido, insomnia and crippling tiredness.
Dad-of-four Robbie – who has his kids with 44-year-old wife Ayda Field – told The Sun about ageing leaving him “knackered”: “The hair is thinning, the testosterone has left the building, the serotonin is not really here and the dopamine said goodbye a long time ago.
“I’ve used up all of the natural good stuff. I’ve got the manopause.
“My daughter says to me, ‘Daddy’s lazy’. I don’t like the term ‘lazy’ as that’s how I was described when I was younger.
“The reality is that I’m just f****** knackered from what I did to myself in the Nineties and bits of the 2000s.”
Robbie has been open about beating his addictions to food and drugs after he left Take That, and has also kicked being hooked on the sleeping pill Zopiclone.
He added about his difficulty sleeping despite his nightly lethargy: “I have a different sleep pattern to other people.
“I’m magnetically drawn to 4am and falling asleep at six and there’s nothing I can do about it.
“I go to bed at 11pm and I’m just lying there completely awake and completely alert until 5am.
“It’s one of the banes of Ayda’s existence that she doesn’t get me until 1pm.”
The male menopause is also known as andropause and can hit men in their late 40s and early 50s.
Experts say symptoms include mood swings, loss of sex drive and muscle mass as well as insomnia and a lack of a short-term memory.
Robbie also recently told The Times he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
He said: “Obviously I have an addictive personality. I haven’t got narcissistic personality disorder or split personality disorder, though.
“I looked at them last week and, obviously, I chose all the worst options. So, if I did have it, I would proudly tell you. But I am collecting them all, like Scout badges.”
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