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Robbie Williams blames weight-loss jabs for failing eyesight

The singer and former Take That member said in 2023 that he’d started using the jabs due to his ‘type 2 self-loathing’

Robbie Williams credits two stone weight loss to Ozempic

Robbie Williams believes his worsening eyesight has been caused by weight loss jabs.

The “Angels” singer has been using injections to manage his weight for several years, but admits that one of the side effects could be a slight blurriness in his vision.

“I want to warn people reading this of the potential risks, to make sure they do their research,” he told The Sun. “I was quite an early adopter of the jabs, but what I’m also noticing is that my eyesight’s not very good.”

He explained that he is unable to pick out specific concert-goers at his gigs, and attended a football match recently where the players appeared to him as “blobs on a green field”. He’s also had to change his glasses prescription as a result.

“Everybody’s experiencing it, because I’ll say to people, ‘Blurry, right?’,” he said. “And they go, ‘Oh s**t, that the thing?’”

A 2024 study, which analysed 17,000 patients over six years, found that people who’d been prescribed semaglutide – which is sold under weight loss jab brand names including Ozempic and Wegovy – were seven times more likely to develop a serious but rare eye condition, which can lead to loss of vision in one eye.

Robbie Williams at a charity football match in June
Robbie Williams at a charity football match in June (Getty Images)

The study, however, could not prove that semaglutide actually caused the condition, and admitted that the numbers affected were small.

Williams revealed in 2023 that his then-recent weight loss was a result of using injections and that it was a medical necessity due to his experiences of depression. “Babe, I’m on Ozempic,” he told The Times. “Well, something like Ozempic. It’s like a Christmas miracle.”

“I’ve been diagnosed with type 2 self-loathing,” he added. “It’s shockingly catastrophic to my mental health to be bigger. My inner voice talks to me like Katie Hopkins talks about fat people. It’s maddening.”

He continued: “With body dysmorphia, when people say they’re worried about how you’re looking, you’re like: ‘I’ve achieved it.’ When people say: ‘we’re worried you’re too thin’ that goes into my head as ‘jackpot – I’ve reached the promised land.’”

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In October, Williams – whose life story was told via chimpanzee in a film biopic last year – announced that he’d been forced to cancel a gig in Istanbul in order to protect public safety.

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