{"id":497862,"date":"2025-10-14T04:21:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T04:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/497862\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T04:21:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T04:21:25","slug":"my-drunken-encounter-with-prince-william-and-the-day-robbie-williams-gave-me-a-3m-cheque-and-i-ripped-it-up-in-front-of-him-paul-gascoigne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/497862\/","title":{"rendered":"My drunken encounter with Prince William – and the day Robbie Williams gave me a \u00a33m cheque and I ripped it up in front of him: PAUL GASCOIGNE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Gascoigne<\/a>\u2019s tell-all memoir is one of the most candid you will ever read. In yesterday\u2019s extract he talked of his utter desolation following his descent into alcoholism. Today, in the final part of our serialisation, the troubled star talks of his (often hilarious) encounters with pop stars and royalty…<\/p>\n

Sitting on the balcony at the Chelsea Harbour Hotel in London<\/a>, sipping on a glass of wine, I answered the phone to Robbie Williams<\/a> who was calling from the room above mine.<\/p>\n

He was organising the 2006 Soccer Aid tournament in which I was about to take part. Held in aid of UNICEF<\/a>, it would see teams of celebs and ex-footballers battling it out on the pitch but it wasn\u2019t that Robbie wanted to discuss as he invited me up for a drink.<\/p>\n

First, he started rapping his new song Rudebox and asked if I thought it would be a hit. I didn\u2019t understand a word of the lyrics, they sounded absolutely mental to me, but I said: \u2018Yeah, that will win, that will. Number One!\u2019<\/p>\n

When it was released later that year it was a bit of a flop in the UK, but it did reach the top of the charts in Italy<\/a>, Germany<\/a> and Switzerland, so I wasn\u2019t completely wrong.<\/p>\n

Our conversation soon turned to a more serious subject.<\/p>\n

\u2018How much did you lose in your divorce, Gazza?\u2019 he asked, referring to my split from my wife Sheryl eight years previously.<\/p>\n

\u2018A canny bit of money,\u2019 I told him. \u2018Maybe more than three million.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Robbie <\/p>\n

Robbie Williams and Paul Gascoigne on the pitch at Soccer Aid in 2006<\/p>\n

\u2018Ah, f****** hell,\u2019 he said. \u2018Just wait here, I\u2019m going to the toilet.\u2019<\/p>\n

When he came back, he handed me a bit of paper and said: \u2018Here\u2019s a present for you.\u2019<\/p>\n

I gasped when I realised it was a cheque for \u00a33million.<\/p>\n

\u2018I can\u2019t accept that,\u2019 I told him and, though it pained me, I ripped it up into tiny pieces and put it in the bin.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s all right, Robbie,\u2019 I said. \u2018I don\u2019t need it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Well, he got out his cheque book and wrote me another one, there and then, again, for three million quid.<\/p>\n

\u2018Please, Gazza,\u2019 he said. \u2018Just take it and cash it in.\u2019<\/p>\n

I had too much dignity to accept his charity. But I could certainly have done with the money.<\/p>\n

\"Angus <\/p>\n

Angus Deayton, Paul Gascoigne, Robbie Williams and Ronnie O’Sullivan<\/p>\n

Four years previously, the downturn in my career had seen me signing with the second-tier Lancashire team Burnley FC. I joined them from Everton where I\u2019d been struggling with injuries which made me realise that, at 35, I just wasn\u2019t the player I used to be.<\/p>\n

I still loved to train, but on the pitch, I\u2019d find myself barking at opponents: \u2018You\u2019re f****** lucky I am this age. Not so long ago, I would have torn you inside out.\u2019<\/p>\n

Depressed by my injuries and drinking heavily, I wasn\u2019t prepared for my first real experience of a lower league club like Burnley.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d never even had to think about where my things got washed before. It was all taken care of for me. But at Burnley I had to pay an apprentice \u00a35 a week to clean my boots, and \u00a320 a month to wash my kit.<\/p>\n

Neither did I enjoy Burnley\u2019s style of football, which seemed to be mostly about kicking the ball as far as you could. In the privacy of my hotel, I\u2019d break down in tears as I asked myself: \u2018Why the hell am I still bothering?\u2019 But I simply couldn\u2019t contemplate a life without football \u2013 the idea was incomprehensible to me.<\/p>\n

I only stayed two months, playing in just six games before deciding I\u2019d like to go abroad, where I wasn\u2019t as easily recognisable and I could get a bit of peace, away from the paparazzi and everyone else.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how I ended up in the most polluted city in the entire world \u2013 Lanzhou, in deepest China, while playing for Gansu Tianma, the worst team in their Second Division.<\/p>\n

I felt optimistic as I flew out to Hong Kong with my dad and my mate Jimmy \u2018Five Bellies\u2019 Gardner in March 2003, excited to begin a new chapter in my life.<\/p>\n

\"Gascoigne <\/p>\n

Gascoigne with Katie Davies, who walked into court with him every day when he was on trial for sexual assault<\/p>\n

I\u2019d been at rehab in the Priory for a week to prepare but, unfortunately, I fell off the wagon at Heathrow Airport.<\/p>\n

Me and my dad were terrified of flying and we fed off each other\u2019s fear, which made it even scarier for us both, so during that 13-hour flight I allowed myself a few drinks and we all arrived in high spirits.<\/p>\n

Although that wasn\u2019t the best of starts, I hoped things would improve once I started playing with the team but I started getting through a bottle a day of a brand of Chinese liquor which is 100 proof, and one day I suffered a terrible panic attack ahead of a training session.<\/p>\n

Sitting at the side of the pitch, with my head in my hands, I struggled to breathe as I wondered how it had come to this, and I lasted only eight weeks at the club before the SARS epidemic gave me the perfect excuse to leave.<\/p>\n

Back home, despite brief stints with Boston United, a League Two side based in Lincolnshire, and Kettering Town in Northamptonshire, I had to face the fact that my footballing days were over and I was bereft. Football was all I knew.<\/p>\n

In the years ahead, its absence left me with a void only booze and drugs could fill and, at one point, in 2008, I went on a cocaine binge for a month, travelling from hotel to hotel. For weeks, all I did was snort coke and down booze.<\/p>\n

The final straw came as I lay on a hotel bed, eating a packet of wine gums. All of a sudden, one of them, I think it was a red one, appeared to spring to life and started to talk.<\/p>\n

\u2018How are you Paul?\u2019 said the wine gum.<\/p>\n

\"'I <\/p>\n

‘I consider myself one of the best football players to have walked this Earth,’ writes Paul Gascoigne<\/p>\n

\u2018Ah, s***,\u2019 I thought to myself, \u2018I really do need help.\u2019<\/p>\n

I called my dad and ended up getting sectioned, which was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. As you can imagine, I felt quite at home in the nut house, and it sobered me up, but it didn\u2019t get rid of the root cause of my problems.<\/p>\n

I eventually managed to get off the cocaine but I continued hitting the bottle and struggled to do much else. I had no one in my life but then I moved to Poole in Dorset, a place I\u2019d fallen in love with after visiting a rehab facility in nearby Bournemouth.<\/p>\n

One day, in 2014, I was in a coffee shop there when I met Katie, a young student. From the start, we simply hit it off as friends \u2013 there was never anything more between us, we just got on.<\/p>\n

As our friendship deepened, Katie began to take on a more serious role in my life. One night, drunk and engulfed by an overwhelming misery, I rang her up and said: \u2018Katie, I don\u2019t want to do this any more. I don\u2019t want to live.\u2019<\/p>\n

She dragged herself out of bed and drove round to my flat, cleared up the mess and put me to bed.<\/p>\n

Katie could see I was in a dark place, struggling badly with the drink, and she helped me out a lot. I\u2019d be sitting there, at 1am, needing a friend, and I\u2019d ring her up. Bless her, she\u2019d always come straight round in the middle of the night to check I was OK.<\/p>\n

She got me out of the house, introduced me to the guy she was married to at the time, Matt, who also became a good friend, as well as her little boy Mason, just a toddler then.<\/p>\n

Over the months and years which followed, they became like family to me and I even got tattoos of their names.<\/p>\n

Katie has since become my manager, organising, among other things, the \u2018Evening With Paul Gascoigne\u2019 show which sees me telling all sorts of stories to theatre audiences, mainly about my personal life and my drunken escapades. She was also a tremendous support to me when I had a horrifying brush with the law in 2018.<\/p>\n

This followed an incident on a train when two women asked if they could have a selfie with me. A bloke in the same carriage pointed to a large lass sitting nearby and said: \u2018You don\u2019t want a photo with her Gazza. She\u2019s f****** fat and ugly.\u2019<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019ve had my fair share of fat jibes throughout the years, from the fans as well as managers, and I know how horrible it can be. When I feel as though someone is being bullied, my instinct is to stick up for them, protect them.<\/p>\n

I will admit I perhaps didn\u2019t go about this in the right way, but I sat next to this woman and gave her a peck on the mouth. \u2018You\u2019re not fat and ugly, darlin\u2019,\u2019 I said. \u2018You\u2019re beautiful, inside and out.\u2019<\/p>\n

That ended up with me being charged with sexual assault, leading to a terrifying 14 months of waiting before the case was brought to trial and I was found innocent. I don\u2019t know what I would have done without Katie, who walked into court with me every day.<\/p>\n

I have my own place near hers but I\u2019ll often stay in her spare room. She later had another child, Nancie, a little girl I love like she\u2019s my own daughter, and I enjoy nothing better than being surrounded by them all.<\/p>\n

Katie\u2019s family has become my family and I\u2019m very settled in Poole where everyone knows who I am and understands I can go off the rails from time to time.<\/p>\n

I feel welcome, and as though I belong, although it can be difficult when people want to talk to me about football because I have barely any desire to do so these days.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s too painful. The end of my career is one of the great sorrows of my life and I don\u2019t even watch the big games on the telly, as it makes me mad with jealousy.<\/p>\n

I consider myself one of the best football players to have walked this Earth, and I will always be so proud of that. But the end of my career was the start of a downward spiral and a sadness that has remained with me to this day.<\/p>\n

The intensity of my sadness is perhaps why I feel this emotion so keenly in others, and always try my best to alleviate it. Walking the streets of Poole in the middle of the night, I am on the lookout for anyone who appears down on their luck \u2013 homeless lads draped in dirty blankets, drug addicts, drunks. They startle when they realise who I am, as I hand them as much cash as I can spare and say: \u2018If you tell anyone, I want this money back.\u2019<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t ask to be an alcoholic but, quite simply, I am one. That will never change. While these days I am on the wagon more than off, I don\u2019t trust myself never to have another drink. All I can do is try to limit the damage when I do.<\/p>\n

This summer, I had a few relapses and a mate found me in bed in a bad way. I\u2019m not sure what would have happened if he hadn\u2019t arrived. I ended up in intensive care but I\u2019m feeling better now, living a quiet life and spending a lot of time at home.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not proud of myself for drinking this summer, as it\u2019s caused me to lash out at the people I love the most and came right in the middle of writing these memoirs, which I really wanted to finish.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad I managed to do that in the end, and to share this most open and honest account of my life so far. I\u2019m far from perfect, but then who is?<\/p>\n

their luck \u2013 homeless lads draped in dirty blankets, drug addicts, drunks.<\/p>\n

They startle when they realise who I am, as I hand them as much cash as I can spare and say: \u2018If you tell anyone, I want this money back.\u2019<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t ask to be an alcoholic but, quite simply, I am one. That will never change.<\/p>\n

While these days I am on the wagon more than off, I don\u2019t trust myself never to have another drink. All I can do is try to limit the damage when I do.<\/p>\n

This summer, I had a few relapses and a mate found me in bed in a bad way. I\u2019m not sure what would have happened if he hadn\u2019t arrived.<\/p>\n

I ended up in intensive care but I\u2019m<\/p>\n

feeling better now, living a quiet life and spending a lot of time at home. I\u2019m not proud of myself for drinking this summer, as it\u2019s caused me to lash out at the people I love the most and came right in the middle of writing these memoirs, which I really wanted to finish.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad I managed to do that in the end, and to share this most open and honest account of my life so far.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m far from perfect, but then who is?<\/p>\n

I nicked Liam\u2019s steak so he soaked me with a fire extinguisher<\/p>\n

For some reason, I seem to attract the company of rock stars. It\u2019s like they can sniff me out a mile away. Although, to be fair, it was me who brought about my crazy encounter with Liam Gallagher.<\/p>\n

I was being driven past London\u2019s Groucho Club in a cab one day in the 1990s when the driver told me he\u2019d seen Liam going in there. \u2018Stop the taxi,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Do you know him?\u2019 the driver asked.<\/p>\n

\u2018Nah, I\u2019ve never met him,\u2019 I replied. \u2018I just have a feeling we\u2019ll get on.\u2019<\/p>\n

I walked into the restaurant, quickly found Liam and said: \u2018Hiya, nice to meet you.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Hiya, Gazza,\u2019 he replied. \u2018Are you all right? Do you want something to eat?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018No, mate,\u2019 I replied. \u2018I\u2019m not hungry, but I\u2019ll have a drink.\u2019<\/p>\n

He went off to get me one, but while he was gone, I started eyeing up his steak. I couldn\u2019t resist it. I genuinely wasn\u2019t hungry, but I thought it would be the biggest laugh to gobble up his meal.<\/p>\n

\"Gazza <\/p>\n

Gazza with Patsy Kensit, Liam Gallagher and Eizabeth Hurley<\/p>\n

When he returned to the table, he said: \u2018Where\u2019s my steak?\u2019<\/p>\n

I looked him straight in the eye and replied: \u2018I ate it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018You f*****g b*****d,\u2019 he spat.<\/p>\n

\u2018Two seconds,\u2019 he said, and he went away again. I assumed he\u2019d gone to get another steak but he came back brandishing a fire extinguisher. He absolutely mullered me with foam and I just sat there and took it \u2013 I knew I deserved everything I got.<\/p>\n

When he\u2019d finished I said: \u2018See you later, mate.\u2019 Then I scarpered.<\/p>\n

I next saw him at a hotel in Scotland. He was sitting at the bar as I walked in and he greeted me like we were old friends.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019re playing a gig at Balloch Castle Country Park,\u2019 he said. \u2018Are you coming?<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t know,\u2019 I replied.<\/p>\n

\u2018Come on, please, man. You\u2019ll love it,\u2019 he told me.<\/p>\n

\u2018I tell you what, Liam, I\u2019ll do it, I will come and watch, but you have to put on a f*****g display for me,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n

\u2018No problemo,\u2019 he replied.<\/p>\n

Liam got me a limo to the venue, a beautiful castle with 200 acres of parkland on the edge of Lake Lomond. I was in the middle of the audience and halfway through the set they shone a flash light on me. I was lit up for everyone to see, my face beamed on to huge screens next to the stage. \u2018Look who\u2019s watching us tonight,\u2019 said Liam, \u2018Someone who can drink more than f*****g me.\u2019<\/p>\n

Then, he said: \u2018Gazza, do you want Roll With It?<\/p>\n

\u2018Yes, mate!\u2019 I roared before he started belting out the tune.<\/p>\n

Rod Stewart was another rocker who became a mate. I bumped into him once in London and he invited me to a pub he said was brilliant.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m desperate for a drink, Rod,\u2019 I told him on the way. He pulled out a bottle of vodka from his pocket and handed it to me.<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t really drink vodka,\u2019 I said, but took a large swig of it anyway. When we got to the pub it was absolutely packed and I offered to go to the bar while he went to the toilet.<\/p>\n

I got the drinks in and was waiting for him to come back when all of a sudden I heard his voice. I looked around, and there he was, singing The First Cut Is The Deepest on the karaoke.<\/p>\n

There was also the time in New York when I got absolutely off my face and fell down the stairs of the hotel I was staying in. I must have tumbled down about 15 flights.<\/p>\n

Lying on the floor, unable to stand, someone picked me up. I opened my eyes, and to my shock and surprise, Phil Collins was standing there.<\/p>\n

\u2018You\u2019ll be all right, Gazza,\u2019 he told me, and bought us some drinks. We got on brilliantly, and he even gave me a pair of drumsticks as a gift. Phil and I kept in touch and sometimes I\u2019d ring him up in Switzerland, where he lived with his wife Jill Tavelman.<\/p>\n

One morning, I was a bit tipsy and decided to give him a call. Jill answered and I said: \u2018Hiya, darlin\u2019, is Phil there?\u2019 But she went absolutely off on me.<\/p>\n

\u2018No, he\u2019s not!\u2019 she yelled. \u2018Have you seen the papers?\u2019<\/p>\n

I was too out of it to have known, but the story of the day was all about how Phil was having an affair with Orianne Cevey, who would become his third wife. I didn\u2019t call him again after that, I was too embarrassed.<\/p>\n

I’m keeping an eye on you from afar, Wills told Gazza\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the good things about being famous is not having to introduce yourself or tell everybody your story over and over again. Everyone I meet already knows who I am, senior royalty included.<\/p>\n

At the England v Denmark game during the Euro 2020 tournament, held in 2021 due to the pandemic, I sat close to Prince William after almost not making it to the game because I had fallen over drunk and cut my head open on a lamppost.<\/p>\n

My friend Katie managed to patch me up and we made our way to Wembley where she was sitting next to David Beckham, while I was behind Prince William and his two bodyguards.<\/p>\n

I got an urge to say hello, so I clambered over some chairs, sat down in the seat next to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.<\/p>\n

\u2018Gazza,\u2019 he said. \u2018What are you doing?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t know,\u2019 I replied.<\/p>\n

I was pretty drunk at the time, but I don\u2019t think he minded.<\/p>\n

\"Paul <\/p>\n

Paul Gascoigne gave Prince WIlliam a kiss on the cheek<\/p>\n

The next time I saw Prince William, I was sober and he seemed much happier to chat. It was two years later, and he was in Bournemouth, which is where I now live, opening a new branch of Pret A Manger.<\/p>\n

\u2018Gazza,\u2019 he exclaimed when he saw me. \u2018Is it actually you? What are you doing here?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve come to see you,\u2019 I told him, shaking his hand.<\/p>\n

\u2018How are you, are you OK?\u2019 he asked. \u2018I\u2019m keeping an eye on you from afar.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m behaving myself now,\u2019 I told him.<\/p>\n

\u2018Cheers, Prince.\u2019<\/p>\n

It was good to see him, and I was touched that he seemed genuinely concerned about me and interested in how I was.<\/p>\n