When Robbie Williams Was Accidentally ‘Rude’ to Cher at the Airport With This Act

Robbie Williams had an encounter with Cher he absolutely wishes he could take back. The Take That singer revealed an unpleasant encounter he had with the Believe hitmaker in the caption of an Instagram photo uploaded on May 27, where he was accidentally ” rude ” to the iconic singer. “Yesterday I met Cher. We were at the same airport terminal. Our mutual friend introduced us. My social awkwardness kicked in of course,” explained Williams, 50, per PEOPLE .

“I wanted to make the interaction as painless as possible for her. Looking for a natural break or ending in the conversation I made my excuses to go sit down. This was not for me but for her,” Williams opened up about the encounter. “Alas, I don’t think Cher had finished talking which made my exiting our brief interaction seem rude. Of course, I will think of this moment periodically for the next 25 years,” the Angels performer revealed.

Williams prophesied that he would be “beating myself up at 4 am” years into the future, wondering, “And remember that time you were rude to Cher?” The U.K. Music Hall of Fame member added about the awkward chat, “As I was leaving, I blew a big kiss and said, ‘Buy well and Barter, make sure you barter. Cher looked confused and I went to the toilet mainly to headbutt the wall, lamenting my stupidity.”

The kind of person Cher is, it doesn’t seem like she’d be judgmental about what happened with Williams. The first time she met legendary actress Meryl Streep , she wasn’t all that confident herself, per PEOPLE . During an appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show earlier this month, the 77-year-old discussed how terrified she was to meet Streep when they costarred in the 1983 film Silkwood , and how working together inspired their close connection.

“I went to make a movie with her. I was packing my bag, and then I started unpacking it, and my sister kept packing it. I went, ‘I cannot go make a movie with Meryl Streep, OK?'” she recalled. “And then I get to Texas, and a woman comes at me with wide, white hair and a white dress. She puts her arms around me, and she says, ‘I’m so glad you’re here,’ and it was her,” the legend recalled. “From then on, we were joined at the hip. We’ve been friends all this time.”

In a 1984 PEOPLE cover story interview, the If I Could Turn Back Time singer shared the tale of how she first met Streep on set. “The first day on location Meryl just came up, threw her arms around me, and said, ‘I’m so glad you’re here.’ She’s all communication and warmth and friendship with a great sense of humor.” Streep felt similarly, as she explained at the time, “I was already in the mindset of ‘My friend is coming, I have somebody on my side.'”