[10] The subsequent stadium tour, which featured seven songs from Williams' solo career, became the biggest-selling concert in UK history when it sold 1.34 million tickets in less than 24 hours.

[11] Williams has since performed with Take That on three separate television appearances,[12][13][14] and collaborated with Barlow on a number of projects[15] such as the West End musical The Band.

[23] According to the documentary For the Record, he was unhappy with his musical ideas not being taken seriously by Martin-Smith and lead singer Barlow; his desire to explore hip hop and rap conflicted with Take That's usual ballads.

Noting Williams's increasingly belligerent behaviour and poor attendance at rehearsals, and worried that he might leave the group during their upcoming tour, Barlow and Jason Orange took their concerns to Martin-Smith.

Following his departure, he became the subject of talk shows and newspapers as he acknowledged his plans to become a solo singer, and he was spotted partying with George Michael in France.

In spite of rumours that Williams was working in New York with Take That in September that year,[26] by the day of the Children in Need charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall in November they were still performing separately.

Both did join with the other acts in the final song of the evening, with Williams putting his arm around Gary Barlow and singing "Hey Jude".

[29] Although still officially part of Take That,[30] Williams chose not to return for group's seventh and eighth studio albums and their accompanying tours, focusing instead on his solo commitments.

[32] Williams launched his solo career in 1996 with a cover of George Michael's "Freedom", which reached number two in the UK Singles Chart.

The video created by Fred & Farid[41] showed Williams in an attempt to get noticed by a group of women, first stripping and then tearing chunks of skin and muscle from his body, and caused controversy in the United Kingdom and many other countries.

When they started working on the album and were trying to re-record the vocals, Williams felt dissatisfied with it, so he decided to include the demo version and then release it as the first single.

When the single was released in late 2002, it became Williams' biggest international hit, going number one in The Netherlands and Italy and reaching the top ten in many European countries.

[52] On 1–3 August 2003, Williams played three consecutive concerts at Knebworth to 125,000 people each night, making it the biggest event in UK music history.

[54] In October 2004, Williams released Greatest Hits, a retrospective of his career, which also contained new tracks he had been working on with then-new collaborator Stephen Duffy.

The album features covers and original songs, whilst also including duet recordings with Michael Bublé, Olly Murs, Rufus Wainwright, Lily Allen and Kelly Clarkson.

[79] Williams released a compilation album entitled Under the Radar Volume 1 on 1 December 2014 through his website, featuring leftovers and unreleased songs.

[86] On 14 June 2018, Williams performed at the 2018 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony held at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia.

[93] On 25 February 2022, it was revealed that Williams had teamed up with his regular collaborators Tim Metcalfe and Flynn Francis to record the trance track "Sway" under the new alias 'Lufthaus'.

Williams said he was working on more experimental music, which he likened to David Bowie and Lou Reed, but said: "Do I unashamedly want to still be one of the biggest artists in the world?

[112][113][114] After the criticism, Williams stated, "I don't condone any abuses of human rights anywhere [...] if we're not condoning human rights abuses anywhere, then it would be the shortest tour the world has ever known: I wouldn't even be able to perform in my own kitchen [...] Anybody leaving messages saying 'no to Qatar' are doing so on Chinese technology [...] the hypocrisy there is that if we take that case in this place, we need to apply that unilaterally to the world.

[128] On 21 December 2024, Williams announced that he would be returning to Australia as a headline performer for its nationally broadcast New Year's Eve concert, which is screened annually on the ABC from in front of the Sydney Opera House.

[129] A portion of his performance from Sydney also appeared in Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve in the United States broadcast, hosted by Ryan Seacrest.

In 2010, Williams and comedian/actor Russell Brand along with Frank Skinner, David Baddiel and singer-songwriter Ian Broudie (of The Lightning Seeds), under the name "The Squad", recorded a new version of "Three Lions", the England football team's song, for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The musical opened in November 2019 at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon where it ran for an 18-week season, earning rave reviews from the critics and audiences.

Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian wrote that Williams is "a perfect meeting of ego, self-deprecation and hits", adding "there really is nobody else, in pop music anyway, who combines monumental hamminess and bone-deep vulnerability quite so effectively.

[186] Williams revealed in 2011 he had been experiencing lethargy caused by a type of hormone imbalance called andropause for a number of years, and thought at first it was a return of his depression.

The documentary followed them to a UFO convention in Nevada, during which Williams linked his obsession in the paranormal with the desire to understand his childhood fears of his mother's belief in "the world's mysteries, elves, demons, [and] witchcraft".

[202][203] At a February 2025 auction of memorabilia and personal items, belonging to Eric Morecambe, long-time fan Williams bought his distinctive imitation tortoiseshell Metzler spectacles and pipe for £20,000, much more than their £2,000 to £4,000 estimate.

[208] In an autobiography she co-authored with her sister Natalie titled Together, Appleton revealed that she terminated the pregnancy of her and Williams' baby after pressure from her record company, causing an immense emotional strain on their relationship.

"[185][222] Williams, with the help of friend Jonathan Wilkes, has organised charity football matches called Soccer Aid to raise money for UNICEF UK.