How Robbie Williams’ wife Ayda Field overcame family illness and tragedy to reinvent herself as a wellness guru with her own range of activewear

Robbie Williams‘ woman Ayda field has become a permanent fixture at the singer’s side, revealing in his tough approach Netflix documentary that she even “groomed” him during a violent drug reaction when they first met.

And the actress, who rose to fame as a star in US soap opera Days Of Our Lives, has overcome her share of personal woes.

Ayda, who married the rock DJ hitmaker in 2010, has openly shared her own family struggles and admitted that learning to love herself has been one of ‘the hardest’ things.

In recent years, Ayda has launched her own range of sportswear and has also embraced motherhood, raising four children with husband Robbie.

MailOnline looks at how Ayda Field overcame her tragedies to reinvent herself as a wellness guru…

Family illness

Ayda revealed in 2018 that her mother Gwen had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease just two days before she and Robbie were due to attend Princess Eugenie’s wedding.

Speaking on Loose Women in 2019, she said: ‘I know how close I am to my mum and that we are best friends.

‘I think being raised by a single mother for a long time creates a close bond, so this is difficult. The diagnosis is difficult.’

Ayda admitted it has been a ‘confusing’ and ‘tough’ time, with the television star revealing she has had ‘moments of misplaced anger’.

In 2021, Ayda then shared the heartbreaking news that her mother Gwen had been diagnosed with cervical cancer.

During her At Home with The Williamses podcast last year, Ayda admitted she was worried her mother could contract Covid-19 in hospital.

She said: ‘My mother was diagnosed with stage two cervical cancer in January, which had spread beyond the cervix and was a very aggressive tumor…

“So in addition to her Parkinson’s and her Lupus, there was a battle with cancer and because the cancer was so big, they decided that she immediately had to undergo daily chemotherapy and radiation and surgery…

‘When the pandemic hit it was very scary because my mother with Lupus, Parkinson’s and cancer, at 70 years old, is ready for some bad things, so she went to the hospital every day for these treatments…

‘I remember thinking, ‘Is she going to pick something up? Is this where it all ends?”

In 2014, Ayda’s father Haldun died suddenly of a heart attack, and the star shared a heartbreaking tribute to him on Instagram in August.

“It will always be the day. Forever. And today I am sad. As usual. Tomorrow I’ll try to push it away. Let it fade. But today I acknowledge it. More importantly, I will honor my father.”

Fertility problems

Ayda has also described the ‘long and difficult’ path she and Robbie had to take to have a third child, as they revealed they welcomed their daughter Coco via an ‘incredible’ surrogate mother.

Ayda wrote at the time: ‘I spy with my eye an extra hand. So we have kept a very special secret! We are happy to share with you that we have a baby girl… welcome to the world Colette (Coco) Josephine Williams!!

“It’s been a very long and difficult path to get here, and that’s why we’ve kept it on the back burner.

“Family comes in all forms, and this little lady, who is biologically ours, was carried by an incredible surrogate mother, to whom we will be forever grateful.”

She continued, “We are over the moon to have this beautiful girl in our lives and so blessed to live in a world that allows this.

‘As with Teddy and Charlie, we ask that you respect Coco’s privacy and allow us to grow into our new team of 5!’

Just seventeen months later, the couple said their family was “complete” when they welcomed their fourth child, son Beau, via the same “incredible” surrogate.

Robbie’s drug fights

In Robbie’s new Netflix docuseries, Ayda reflected on the challenges she and the singer faced during the early days of their relationship.

In the series, Robbie and Ayda detail their unlikely first meeting while he was in the US, with the Feel singer admitting he had relapsed into drug addiction and that she had to ‘nurse’ him when he became unwell after taking cocaine.

Robbie, who admitted he had fallen back into drug addiction earlier in the episode, added: “She came to my house after being at a party I had just seen at my dealer’s house that I was sleeping with at the time.”

“The house is all damn dark, no candles and no lights, we just sit there and talk, we have nothing in common,” Ayda explained.

Ultimately, Robbie decided to take Ayda to the party she came from, and the Days Of Our Lives star continued: “I think I surrendered to the fact that we weren’t each other’s person, and we were just very loose with each other. He said funny things in the car and I thought ”oh, he’s funny!”

‘There was that exact moment where we were laughing and it was like the universe opened up.”

Robbie then revealed that he started having an intense reaction to a line of cocaine, and Ayda took him home and ‘nursed him’ before they ‘talked all night’.

Although Ayda said she was aware Robbie was in the grips of drug addiction, she still described him as “her soulmate.”

As Robbie’s problems reached frightening new lows, he admitted that he began to struggle with suicidal thoughts.

Following intervention from his management, Robbie explained that he and Ayda had decided to split so he could complete a stint in rehab.

‘He acts like I can’t be in a relationship anymore and that I need to get better. I have to break up with you,” Ayda said.

“I understood because I saw he was unwell and I remember thinking I just wanted you to get better, whatever you had to do, and I was just so down. He was my soulmate and then he was gone.”

After he completed his treatment and got clean, Robbie and Ayda rekindled their romance and flew to Morocco together.

They married in 2010 and have four children: Teddy, 11, Charlie, nine, Coco, five, and Beau, three.

A kickstart to her wellness career

Although best known in the US for her acting roles, Ayda has reinvented herself as a wellness guru in recent years.

On social media, she has built a following of like-minded working parents who embrace her chaotic outlook on life, and now has more than 600,000 followers.

Last year Ayda launched her own high-end athleisure label called Ayda Activewear.

“This is 100 percent my first venture into clothing,” Williams told Yahoo News.

‘I’ve been thinking about the idea for a while, and I’ve always been passionate about fitness and wellness, and all I wear is my casual wear.

“I want the women to know that we are in this together,” Williams said. ‘Perfectionism does not exist. We all have our stumbling blocks. I want women to feel embraced in this space.”

Learning to love themselves

Ayda has previously revealed that learning to love her appearance remains a telling challenge HELLO!: ‘That was the hardest. Loving Rob was easy in comparison – how can you love someone unconditionally if you don’t love yourself? It inevitably happens.

“Just as grace comes with well-being, there is grace that comes with growing older.

‘It’s a constant challenge because as a woman, as someone in the public space, there are so many opportunities to listen to that little voice that says bad things to you. But I’m definitely more relaxed as I get older.’