Phil Collins stepped out for a rare public appearance this week amid his ongoing health struggles.
The 75-year-old music legend’s ailments and various procedures are well known, which have resulted in him now requiring 24-hour nursing care.
Collins began suffering in 2007, when he dislocated a vertebrae in his neck while drumming on the Genesis reunion tour. This caused severe nerve damage to his hands, meaning he’s no longer able to play.
Performing in such a position took its toll on the star’s condition over time, leading to drop foot, which is difficulty lifting the front of the foot, and means Collins now uses mobility aids due to significant difficulty walking.
In 2021, Collins described himself as ‘physically challenged’. He’s had five knee operations, kidney problems, and prolonged hospitalisations, and has type 2 diabetes.
Still, he’s remained in good spirits, looking smiley as he brushed shoulders with fellow celebrities at Buckingham Palace.
The In The Air Tonight hitmaker posed for a photo with Sir Rod Stewart and his wife, Penny Lancaster, plus his own ex-wife, Jill, with whom he shares actress daughter Lily Collins, 37.
He was there to celebrate the 50th anniversary of King Charles’s charity, The King’s Trust, formerly The Prince’s Trust, with other A-listers like George and Amal Clooney, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Idris Elba on the guest list.
A snap shared by Jill on Instagram shows Sir Rod, 81, with an arm around Collins, who looks dapper in a black suit and a red tie, steadying himself with two crutches.
Her caption described Thursday’s event as ‘a truly memorable afternoon’, adding: ‘@officialphilcollins and I were very proud and honoured to be there and have a few private moments with King Charles who seemed genuinely pleased to see Phil who was the very first ambassador 40 years ago and a trustee even before that!’
She went on to reveal that she and Collins, from whom she split in 1994, leading to two tumultuous years of divorce proceedings, are working together on a King’s Trust auction, donating hundreds of items from their personal archives.
In the comments, one fan, @simon.kiddo, wrote sweetly: ‘This is amazing, Jill! You look fabulous and so does Phil ❤️💙 Please pass on our best regards to him, and love from all of us to both of you X’
‘Phil is looking fabulous! Out and about and doing what he loves…keep it up, Phil! I know you can do it!!’, added @ksteffen61.
@thehappypebble also said: ‘This post has made my day. Jill you look amazing and it’s so good to see the two of you together. It’s especially good to see Phil out and about. Good luck with the auction ❤️’
Collins retired in 2022 after his band’s farewell run; he could no longer drum without feeling pain.
Speaking in January this year, he reflected on his health woes, telling Zoe Ball for his BBC Two special, Phil Collins Eras: In Conversation, the challenges were ‘ongoing’.
‘I have a 24-hour live-in nurse, um, to make sure I take my medication as I should do,’ he explained. ‘Uh, I’ve had challenges with my knee — I had everything that could go wrong with me did go wrong with me.
‘You know, I mean, I got Covid in hospital, my kidneys started to back up, you know, everything… that could all seemed to sort of converge at the same time.’
Following five knee ops, Collins said he has ‘a knee that works’, and he can walk, ‘albeit with assistance’ on ‘crutches or whatever’.
Still, it’s been a ‘difficult, interesting, frustrating last few years’.
Also in the interview, he reflected on his sobriety, having just marked the two-year milestone. Collins has spoken about his alcoholism numerous times, which stemmed from personal troubles and his back injury.
‘I’d probably been drinking too much, and so my kidneys were messed up, you know?’, he admitted. ‘I mean, I enjoyed coming off tour. Coming off the road, but I thought, “Right, I’m gonna do all those things that I couldn’t do.”
‘I stopped drinking at six o’clock in the evening. I wasn’t one of those guys that sort of stayed up all night drinking, you know? I’d drink during the day, but I guess I had too much of it. I was never drunk, although I fell over a couple of times.
‘But it is just one of those things that happened, and it all caught up with me, and I spent months in hospital.’
During his last-ever run of live shows, Collins had accepted that he could no longer drum, so he would sing from a stool while his son took over percussion duties.
In 2025, the Grammy winner stated to Mojo magazine that he is no longer ‘hungry’ enough to make new music, despite decades of success and 150million worldwide record sales as a solo artist.
‘The thing is, I’ve been sick. I mean, very sick.’
But at the start of 2026, he gave fans a glimmer of hope, adding in his BBC chat, after being pressed on getting back into the studio one day, that he does have unfinished projects.
‘Maybe life in the old dog. Yeah. You’ll see.’
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