PERRIE Edwards has shared the secret anxiety disorder that stopped her from leaving the house.
The singer, 32, rose to fame in girl band Little Mix from 2011 until 2022.
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They initially formed on The X Factor before achieving worldwide success.
Perrie discussed her experience with agoraphobia in a recent interview.
The star, who also shares a three-year-old son with ex-England footballer Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, said she feels “fully in her element” while performing on stage.
She added to The Telegraph: “But as soon as I’m back home behind closed doors, that’s when the anxiety kicks in and I’m just me again.”
Read more on Perrie Edwards
Perrie clarified she has “quite a thick skin” with online comments about her appearance or clothes.
She continued: “[I can’t help] but catastrophise about the everyday things that should be easy, like getting into my car and driving to London.
“At the end of last year, my agoraphobia got so bad I could barely leave the house.”
The star also revealed having been “painfully shy” before her time on The X Factor.
It comes as Perrie’s bandmate Jade Thirlwall addressed being diagnosed with disordered eating at the height of Little Mix‘s fame.
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.
Perrie Edwards says she still cries over Jesy Nelson leaving Little Mix five years on – but insists ‘we did everything we could’
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.
Help for mental health
If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support.
The following are free to contact and confidential:
Mind, www.mind.org, provide information about types of mental health problems and where to get help for them. Call the infoline on 0300 123 3393 (UK landline calls are charged at local rates, and charges from mobile phones will vary).
YoungMinds run a free, confidential parents helpline on 0808 802 5544 for parents or carers worried about how a child or young person is feeling or behaving. The website has a chat option too.
Rethink Mental Illness, www.rethink.org, gives advice and information service offers practical advice on a wide range of topics such as The Mental Health Act, social care, welfare benefits, and carers rights. Use its website or call 0300 5000 927 (calls are charged at your local rate).
Heads Together, www.headstogether.org.uk, is the a mental health initiative spearheaded by The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales.
“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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