Robbie Williams claims his fame put his life in danger when a hitman was contracted to kill him.
In a new interview with The Mirror, the 'Rock DJ' star talked about the "unseen" side of fame, and the anxiety it continues to bring him to this day.
"I've never, ever said this, but I had a contract put on me to kill me. I've never said that publicly before," he explained.
"It went away. I have friends. That stuff is the unseen stuff that happens when you become famous."
Williams recalled being "Michael Jackson-style famous" at one point in his career, adding that "extreme fame and extreme success meets with anxiety and depression and mental illness".
"I became famous when I was 17, doing a boy band when I was 16, the boy band took off. When I was 21 I left and then I had a solo career, sold 80 million albums, held the record for the most tickets sold in a day for a tour and blah, blah, blah," he said.
"There's a few levels of fame and what it does to you. The first one is 'f**k'. There's a couple more I can't remember but the fourth one is acceptance."
The now 47-year-old pop star said he'd learned to "rally against his privacy being taken away from him" by trying to be "normal".
"But also I'm gonna be small so people don't beat you up. Like, 'I'm a dickhead, don't hurt me'.
"I want to go to all the normal places I can't go because people want to kill me. It takes a while to get to acceptance."
Williams said he still has anxiety and doesn't like meeting strangers, but knows it comes with the territory.
"Strangers want to meet me, and I feel really uncomfortable about it. Thinking about it actually gives me anxiety. It's a trigger.
"Also, you've got to be the mayor of the best town people have ever visited, or else people go, 'He's one of those famous people that are a dick'. Actually, I hate having my picture taken."
The father-of-four said that making the decision to stop promoting his music in the US meant that he was able to live there with some sense of normality.
Having realised that attempting to break into the American market was only adding to his mental health issues, Williams moved to Los Angeles and proceeded to turn down every opportunity he was offered in the US, while remaining hugely popular in the UK.
"Basically, what happens is I live in anonymity here and really enjoy that, then I try to move back to my home country and remember that I have no anonymity there and that makes me feel anxious and depressed and then I move back to the States."
