JADE Thirlwall opened up on her past with disordered eating at the height of her fame with Little Mix.
The singer rose to fame with the pop group, but has branched out as an award-winning solo artist after Little Mix went on hiatus after their confetti tour in 2022.
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The girlband which included, Jade, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards and Jesy Nelson, racked up 19 top ten singles including FIVE No1s, since their talent show triumph.
Since leaving Little Mix, Jade has admitted to putting on weight after the pressures put on her to be “stick-thin” while in the pop group.
But the scrutiny on her changing body has not eased and Jade admitted feeling the temptation to go on weight-loss injections such as Mounjaro, or Ozempic as is the brand name in the US.
“Little Mix fans were all about empowerment and celebrating your body however you look,” Jade said in an interview with The Guardian.
“Now I’m in my 30s and the healthiest I’ve ever been, but every time I post a picture, there are comments saying, ‘She must be pregnant’… people are used to seeing me in a group environment five or 10 years ago when I was stick-thin because I was in my early 20s with an eating disorder.”
Jade added that she did not realise in the moment that she had a disordered eating issue.
“But when I look back at photos of periods when I was quite unhappy, I think, ‘wow, girlie, you were very, very thin’,” she explained.
“The pattern was there. Historically, if I’ve ever felt that something is out of my control, then restricting food has been a means of controlling my life in a very toxic way.”
The Angel Of My Dreams singer got so bad around 2017 that her mum and a friends of hers drove down from her hometown of South Shields, near Newcastle.
They made sure Jade was eating and getting her to gigs, but taking a break from Little Mix never crossed her mind.
“If you stop working in this business, then everybody wants to know why, and I couldn’t be arsed for everything that came with that. So I kept it moving,” Jade said.
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Since going solo, Jade has been outspoken about the harsh expectations on the members of Little Mix, who found fame on reality TV show, X Factor.
She opened up on “selling her soul” to be a popstar during an appearance on ITV’s The Assembly, where she was questioned by interviewers who are autistic, neurodivergent or learning disabled — and no topics was off limits.
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Jade was left stumped when one man asked her if she regretted selling her soul by finding fame on the talent show back in 2011.
Struggling to answer diplomatically, before comparing herself to Marvel superhero Thanos, she confessed: “You’ve trumped me . . . Maybe a little bit in the beginning.
“I was so young and I just signed on the dotted line.
“But as the years have gone by I’ve learned more and more about the industry.
“I’ve been collecting — a bit like Thanos with the stones — I’ve been collecting parts of my soul back as I’ve gained more creative freedom.”
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