ROBBIE Williams has revealed he has been diagnosed with autism at the age of 52 — and pals say he is taking it in his trademark stride.
The music legend recently sought a professional assessment after “feeling like there was something he was missing” about himself.
Robbie, who was also previously diagnosed with ADHD, casually revealed the news during a launch for the autumn/winter collection of his Hopeium clothing brand.
He said: “I’ve got ADHD. I’ve just found out I’ve got a bit of autism as well, which I f**ing love, because it explains so much, and it’s like a get-out-of-jail card now.
“If I do all the weird s*** that I do, I go, ‘Sorry, I’m autistic.’”
The married father of four went on: “With ADHD, you can completely and utterly concentrate on something 100 per cent.
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“But absolutely everything else, you just cannot do it. Ask my kids.”
The former Take That star, who also suffers from clinical depression, opened up about his creativity.
He said: “I’m completely and utterly obsessed with creating images and funny things, and if I’m creating images and making what I think are funny things, I’m not thinking about ‘me’.
“My brain is incredibly creative, and it can be creative about everything in the world, including things that can cause you to panic or be scared.”
He also revealed that he struggles to concentrate with background noise or distractions as he becomes overstimulated, saying: “It really throws me off.”
Since being diagnosed just a few weeks ago, The Sun can reveal the singer has met with an AuDHD expert — someone who specialises in both autism and ADHD.
Robbie hopes the meetings will give him a greater understanding of his behaviour.
A source told The Sun: “Robbie has known for some time about his ADHD, but he always felt there was something he was missing.
“Someone suggested he could be autistic, and so within the past few weeks, he sought private medical advice and underwent an assessment.
It’s still early days, but Robbie has spoken with an AuDHD expert to get a greater understanding of what the diagnosis means for him and what options can be put in place to make life easier.
“Like with everything life throws at him, Robbie is taking the diagnosis in his stride.
“It’s business as usual. The diagnosis just gives a greater understanding of what makes Robbie Robbie.”
The Sun was the only newspaper Robbie met during the intimate launch in front of fashion bigwigs at Flannels on London’s Oxford Street.
He told us he hopes his Hopeium brand will bring some fun into the notoriously uptight and judgemental fashion industry.
His new tongue-in-cheek range includes “Gandhi” football tops and shirts adorned with images of a hand flipping the middle finger. Chuckling, he said he is already planning to bring out a Dalai Lama version.
Robbie had a well-documented battle with alcohol and substance abuse in the nineties and early noughties.
But he claimed he is now addicted to creating art and clothes after being clean and sober for over two decades.
Robbie said: “I really got into drawing and creating. I think it’s my addict’s gene. Look, I can no longer do cocaine. No longer do MDMA, no longer drink, so, you know, where does the addiction go to?
“Well, it goes to several places, and one of them is clothes.”
Robbie went on: “It’s a bit of silliness because I love silliness, and there doesn’t seem to be any silliness in fashion.
“It seems to be outlawed because, you know, as much as I love fashion, it’s properly pretentious and very, very serious, isn’t it?”
Robbie plans to draft in his wife Ayda Field, 47, to model the collection in a bid to boost sales.
Robbie, who has recently dramatically trimmed down after turning to weight-loss jabs, also hopes to make his catwalk debut at London Fashion Week.
He said: “Hopefully we will see me modelling it on the runway.
“I mean, I’m in decent nick now, so yeah. I’ve been looking after myself. I’d be happy if any artist started wearing the brand, and Ayda will wear it too.”
He added of his new clobber: “I should be wearing it on my tour – it would make marketing sense.”
The singer is set to play shows across Europe and South America this autumn.
He is also hotly tipped to play Glastonbury next June for the first time since 1998, with sources saying he could follow in Sir Rod Stewart’s footsteps and play the Sunday Legends slot.
Last month, a clip of Robbie went viral after something appeared to fall out of his nose during an unplanned live appearance on German TV at the World Cup in New York.
Some viewers thought Robbie was back taking cocaine.
Rather than fearing for his career, Robbie laughed off the suggestion he had relapsed, and believes no one cares anyway.
He said: “Can I clear something up, please, as well? I didn’t relapse on cocaine at the World Cup, but now forever and ever and ever the internet will be assured of itself that coke fell out of my nose.
“No, it was Nicorette. The thing is, I thought about it the next day — I was lying in bed, and 50 million people had seen me supposedly relapse on coke at the World Cup, and I was like, ‘If I was on coke, it wouldn’t be a f***ing problem anyway, would it? Who f***ing cares?’”
And he said some people seemed to be pleased at the prospect of him doing class A drugs again.
He went on: “So many comments online were like, ‘Good for you, Robbie. Everyone loves the f***ing packet.’ So I made some new fans due to what they thought I was doing.”
Before Spain took on Argentina in the World Cup final last month, Robbie was front and centre in the closing ceremony, taking to the pitch to sing the official Fifa anthem Desire alongside Nicole Scherzinger and Italian singer Laura Pausini.
In keeping with still feeling like he’s just Rob from Stoke rather than one of the biggest-selling British singers of all-time, he swaggered towards the halfway line in a blue Adidas tracksuit – adorned with diamantes for the momentous occasion.
Robbie said: “The sparkles were added at the artist’s request, and it felt so comfy.
“It’s best to be comfy, so when they said, ‘What do you want to wear?’ I just said, ‘I want to wear a tracksuit. Can you put some jewels on it so it’s a bit showbizzy?’”
Insisting he is still just as ambitious as he was three decades ago, Robbie said of his future plans: “Lots of records. I’m 52, still ambitious, still have this gaping chasm that is unfillable.
“Still want, still need, still want to have purpose, I want to be out there doing things. I am still as ambitious as I was when I was 22 and it’s served me well. I have new music, new tours too.”
Robbie, who has been in the public eye since 1992, also said he would be ignoring snobbish critics, saying: “I don’t need validation from the po-faced fashion industry. I never got that from the po-faced music industry.
“I would like validation from the general clothing-buying public.”