Robbie Williams publicly supports Zayn Malik in his battle with anxiety

Robbie Williams has reached out to Zayn Malik, urging the former One Direction star to be brave and confident as he continues to battle with his debilitating anxiety, which resulted in a number of cancelled shows this year.

The former Take That star, who has been in the spotlight ever since he was a teenager, shared some encouraging words of advice for the 23-year-old at Key 103’s Christmas Live gig in Manchester on Friday night.

Talking to radio presenters Mike Toolan and Kelly Pegg, he said: “To young Zayn, well he’s been kind of pulling out of promo and stuff.

“And I know that he suffers with anxiety. And I think that, the one bit of advice, I know it’s a bit therapy-speak, but I think that people sort of assume that one day you’re gonna find your confidence and you will step in that confidence and it will find you.”

He added: “It doesn’t come but what you can be is brave. So, I would say to Zayn, just be brave mate. Just be brave. You might never be confident but you can be brave. That’s (all) I’ll say. Even if you’re scared, just do it anyway.”

In June of this year, Zayn bowed out of his appearance at the Capital Summertime Ball in London, just moments before he was due to take to the Wembley Arena stage, where he previously performed with 1D.

Shortly after, he bravely opened up about his mental health issues, writing on Instagram: “I flew in to the UK last night to appear in my home country in front of my family, friends, and most importantly my UK fans.

“Unfortunately my anxiety has haunted me throughout the last few months around live performances has gotten the better of me… with the magnitude of the event, I have suffered the worst anxiety of my career.

“I cannot apologise enough but I want to be honest with everyone who has patiently waited to see me, I promise I will do my best to make this up to everybody I’ve let down today.

“I know those who suffer anxiety will understand and I hope those who don’t can empathise with my situation.”

Meanwhile Robbie, who recently opened up about his own inner demons, admitted he still finds it difficult to perform in front of sell-out crowds despite holding a record-breaking number of BRIT awards.

“That’s what makes me nervous,” he explained. “A lot of the time I’m not nervous but when I am it’s debilitating and it’s traumatic.

“I get on stage and most of the time, Robbie Williams turned up and it’s good and we’re swinging and everything’s great. And then sometimes I get up and I’ll just see tens of thousands of people and I’m there alone, by myself and yeah, it’s traumatic and weird.”

We seriously applaud Robbie and Zayn for continuing to speak out about their mental health issues. <3