Robbie Williams promised himself he wouldn’t get married and have children.
The ‘Candy’ hitmaker can’t imagine life without his wife Ayda Field and their two kids Theodora, four, and Charlton, two, now but has admitted settling down was the last thing on his mind when his career started to take off.
Speaking to the Irish Times newspaper, he said: "I made a vow to myself that marriage and kids just wasn’t going to happen.
"I looked at others around me and it seemed like a pain in the a**e. It looked tiring and awful and I didn’t want that for myself. Yet here I am: married, two kids, feeling better about my life than I ever could have imagined."
And, despite his initial reservations, the 42-year-old singer believes parenthood is the "best thing in the world" as it gives him a purpose in life.
He said: "Having kids is an emotional atomic bomb. It’s a reason to live and a reason to go to work. And this is the best job in the world, but it’s a job."
However, Robbie will be forced to spend a large chunk of time away from his little ones and beloved wife, whom he married in 2010, next year as he has just announced plans to do a stadium tour across the UK and Europe.
Taking to his Facebook account on Friday (28.10.16), he said: "I’ll be bringing The Heavy Entertainment Show to a stadium near you next June! All dates will be announced on Monday 7 November… (sic)"
The hunk is also hoping to join his former band Take That for a couple of gigs on their 25th anniversary tour next year, but, given his schedule, he doesn’t know if he’ll have time.
He said recently: "My head is, I’d love to do something with the boys but I don’t know if it’s going to be next year because you know, I want this album to have legs and I’m going to go on tour.
"As you can imagine, diary goes: album promo until January, February, March, and then I go on tour for a year which takes me through next year, next Christmas, which would be when the boys would be releasing an album I suppose. I can’t do it. I can’t do it next year. I want to – I want to be able to do both, but you can’t."