Robbie Williams mistook Barbra Streisand for ‘nice old lady’ on holiday – and she thought he was a footballer

Robbie Williams mistook Barbra Streisand for a “nice old lady” on holiday – while she thought he was a footballer.

The singers were introduced through mutual friends on Tahiti when they both failed to recognise one another.

Former Take That member Robbie, 48, told Scott Mills and Chris Stark on their final Radio 5 Live morning show on Saturday (20.08.22): “And it was like ‘Hi, I’m John’, and ‘Hi, I'm Rob’, and ‘Hi I’m Steve’ – ‘Hi Steve’, ‘Hi, I’m Barbra’ – ‘Hello Barbra, I’m pleased to meet you’ – nice old lady.

“Then I sat down next to Barbra. And it was Barbra Streisand. And I was like, ‘Oh, ahh’.”

Robbie added about Barbra then mistaking his identity: “People were talking about Soccer Aid, and she just presumed I played football. And then I was like ‘Oh, no, no, no, I’m a singer’. And she was like, ‘That’s nice’.”

Robbie didn’t know Barbra despite the 80-year-old winning eight Grammys, five Oscars and starring in films including ‘Funny Girl’.

Robbie is one of the biggest selling singers in history, and in 2006 made it into the Guinness Book of World Records after he sold 1.6million concert tickets in a day.

He is married to wife Ayda Field, 43, with whom he has four children – Theodora ‘Teddy’, aged nine, Charlton ‘Charlie’, seven, Colette ‘Coco’, three, and two-year-old Beau.

His new album ‘XXV’ is out September 9, while a biopic about his life is being filmed in Australia, featuring Jonno Davies, 29, as a younger Robbie.