Robbie Williams took on a surprise role as a wedding officiant at a screening of his new film Better Man in New York.
On 12 January, blogger Ezra Cubero shared photos on X/Twitter showing Williams, 50, standing in front of a couple while wearing a leopard print coat.
“At today’s Better Man Q&A in NYC, Robbie Williams was vulnerable, receptive to the audience’s energy, took time to have a heart to heart with his daughter, and then a man in the audience asked him, as an ordained minister, to officiate a marriage with his fiancé. Incredible,” he wrote.
Introducing the couple, who had been together for five years, Williams discovered that the groom, Haldun, shared the same name as his Turkish father-in-law.
Footage of the moment shows the “Rock DJ” singer holding a jumbo-sized slushie while declaring: “By the power vested in me by absolutely nobody – it’s not legally binding, but it’s legally binding in your heart and your heart and my heart,” before getting to the “I dos”.
He then pronounced the couple as man and wife to cheers and applause from the audience, and gave them both a hug.
The British pop star has been an ordained minister since 2002, when he obtained a licence over the internet to marry two of his best friends: guitarist Billy Morrison and his partner, Jennifer Holliday.
Morrison told Hello! at the time: “The fact that my mate Robbie performed the ceremony means everything to me. He managed to make it extremely powerful. My bride walked down the aisle to the tune of Aerosmith’s ‘Sweet Emotion’. Robbie ended the service with the traditional, ‘You may now kiss the bride.’”
Unfortunately, Morrison and Holliday have since divorced.
Williams has been busy promoting his film Better Man, which depicts the Take That star as a CGI chimpanzee.
As well as narrating the movie and providing vocals, Williams contributed the original song “Forbidden Road”, which he recently learnt had been disqualified from the Academy Awards.
The track is nominated for Best Original Song at the Golden Globes, but a report in Variety suggests that it could have been deemed ineligible for the Oscars due to its melodic similarities to “I Got a Name”, a song performed by Jim Groce in the 1972 film The Last American Hero.
Williams was asked about the disqualification while appearing on the red carpet at the Golden Globes last week.
“Listen, the rules are the rules, and you have to go by them,” he said. “And it would’ve been nice, but as an introvert it’s another party that I don’t have to go to.
“I went through it, I’m on the other side and it’s all good. I’m at the Globes and they’re showing me loads of love,” he continued, before thanking the interviewer for “being annoyed on [his] behalf”.
Despite positive reviews, the Michael Gracey-directed film reportedly struggled in its opening weekend in the US, with Variety reporting that the project “tanked” with a $1m debut. It fared marginally better in the UK, where Williams is better known, opening on £1.7m against a budget of £100m.
Better Man is in cinemas now.
