What is tourette syndrome and which celebrities have it?

The singer told Paul Whitehouse and Dr Mine Conkbayir, the husband and wife duo who host the new podcast I’m ADHD! No You’re Not, that he also suffers with intrusive thoughts.

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Williams is about to finish his European summer tour and is also building up to the February release of Britpop, his first album of all-new music in a decade.

“I've just realised that I have Tourette’s, but they don't come out,” said the 51-year-old, who has also recently promoted his biopic Better Man and launched his own art gallery.

“They are intrusive thoughts that happen, I was just walking down the road the other day, and I realised that these intrusive thoughts are inside Tourettes. It just doesn't come out.

“Not only that, you would think that a stadium full of people professing their love to you would work as [a distraction], but whatever it is inside me cannot hear it. I cannot take it in.”

Williams is not the first celebrity to have said he has the condition.

What is tourette syndrome?

According to the NHS, tourette syndrome shows itself with tics, which can include whistling, sniffing, making sounds, or repeating a word or phrase.

“Tics can be triggered by different things including stress, excitement or tiredness,” the NHS said.

People with tourette syndrome often also have obsessive compulsive disorder and attention hyperactive deficit disorder, two other conditions that Williams says he has.

Which other celebrities say they have tourette syndrome?

Lewis Capaldi

The Scottish singer revealed in 2022 that he has the condition and said at the time that his diagnosis “makes so much sense”.

"I have Tourette's. I've always had that apparently... so I do a shoulder twitch quite a lot," he told followers.

Billie Eilish

The American singer says she was diagnosed with the condition when she was 11 and, more recently, said that her tics can be obvious if a camera is on her for long enough.

She said: "I never don't tic at all, because the main tics that I do constantly, all day long, are like, I wiggle my ear back and forth and raise my eyebrow and click my jaw ... and flex my arm here and flex this arm, flex these muscles. These are things you would never notice if you're just having a conversation with me, but for me, they're very exhausting."

Tim Howard

Former Everton and Manchester United goalkeeper Howard, a longtime number one for the US football team, had quite severe symptoms as a child.

The now-retired player said in his 2014 autobiography: “I was 10 when the symptoms began to appear. First came the touching: I walked through the house tapping certain objects in a particular order. Touch the railing. Touch the door frame. Touch the light switch. Touch the wall. Touch the picture. The pattern might vary, but there was always a specific rhythm, and it had to be followed. Exactly. If it wasn’t – if I tried to resist – I had to start all over again, until I got it right. It didn’t matter if I was starving and dinner was on the table. It didn’t matter how badly I needed to go to the bathroom. I had to obey the pattern inside my head. I had to touch these things, and in exactly this order. It was urgent.”

Seth Rogen

The actor said he has a mild case that involves twitching and called out the Republican US senator Ted Cruz who made a joke about those with tourette syndrome swearing, on Twitter.

“As someone who has tourette’s in their family (and also has a very mild case himself), I once again take great pleasure in telling you to go f*** yourself,” he tweeted in response to Cruz.

Dan Aykroyd

The actor said he was diagnosed at the age of 12 and also has autism.

"I had physical tics, nervousness and made grunting noises,” he said. “I had therapy, which really worked, and by 14 my symptoms eased."