Credit IMAGO/ANP

Robbie Williams has linked his worsening vision to the weight-loss injections of “something like Ozempic” he has used for several years, warning readers of The Sun about the potential risks.

The singer reported increasing difficulty seeing individual faces at concerts and said when he watched an American football match recently, the players appeared as “blobs on a green field”. He has since required a change in glasses prescription. Williams told the newspaper other users of weight-loss drugs he’s spoken to have reported similar visual symptoms. “I don’t believe it’s age; I believe it’s the jabs,” he said.

A 2024 study published in JAMA Ophthalmology, ‘Risk of nonarteritic anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy [NAION] in patients prescribed semaglutide’, analysed 16,827 patients over six years and found those with diabetes were over four times more likely to develop NAION if they were taking semaglutide, compared with controls, and eight times more likely if overweight or obese. Authors could not confirm causation.

Williams told The Times in 2023 that body dysmorphia and profound self-criticism strongly influence his relationship with weight. “When people say: ‘we’re worried you’re too thin’, that goes into my head as ‘jackpot – I’ve reached the promised land.’” At a recent meet-and-greet, Williams said one fan told him their friend had gone blind from the jab. “But seriously, I’m that sick I’d probably stay on it until the sight in one eye has completely gone.”