Jade Thirlwall has made the heartbreaking confession that she struggles daily to not use weight-loss drugs after trolling.
The Little Mix star has been dominating the music scene this year in preparation for her debut solo album, That’s Showbiz, Baby!
However, being under the spotlight has not come without its battles, particularly pressures to look a certain way and lose weight.
‘I have a daily battle with myself not to go on Ozempic,’ Jade, 32, confessed to The Guardian in a new interview.
‘I don’t judge people that do, but because I have a history of eating disorders, I don’t know where taking something like that would end for me.’
Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs suppress your appetite while controlling glucose levels and other hunger signals, resulting in dramatic weight loss.
She continued: ‘Little Mix fans were all about empowerment and celebrating your body however you look. 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.”‘
Jade’s bandmates, Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson and Leigh-Anne Pinnock, have all welcomed children since the group went on hiatus.
While the Angel of My Dreams hitmaker is settled with Rizzle Kicks icon Jordan Stephens, the pair have not publicly discussed plans to have children.
‘The sad thing is that it’s usually women,’ she added. ‘But 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.’
Little Mix were put together on The X Factor in 2011, becoming the first group and only girl group to ever win the long-running competition show.
The Black Magic hitmakers sold over 75milion records, landing five UK number ones, 16 Top 10s, and three Brit Awards.
Jade admitted that she shouldn’t have been allowed to compete as she was incredibly fragile at the time, having just been discharged from hospital.
Looking back at old photos, she now sees how ‘very very thin’ she was despite not believing she had relapsed under the industry pressure.
‘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,’ Jade explained.
Now, away from the pressures of being in the biggest girl group in the world, Jade is thriving as a solo artist.
All four former Little Mix stars have released their own music to varying success, with Leigh-Anne admitting she didn’t enjoy going her own way as much as she expected to.
‘The pressure is what stopped me enjoying it as much,’ she said on Capital XTRA Breakfast last month.
‘Obviously, coming from such a massive group and having the pressure to do just as well as that massive group did is kind of impossible to do overnight.
‘That took 10 years. It takes work. And also, I’m not doing music like the group did. Like, I’ve gone down a different route, and I just think those expectations kind of like weighed on me and it was like, “This is just not fun!”
‘I’m doing this solo because one, I want to have fun. You know, I deserve to have that without feeling like this horrible pressure on me.’
The band was shattered when, in 2020, Jesy decided to leave the band midway through their Confetti album promotion.
Jesy has also spoken about issues with mental health, revealing that trolling on social media — including a tweet from Katy Hopkins about her weight — pushed her to attempt suicide.
All the Little Mix stars have said they wished Jesy the best, but the announcement took them by surprise, with no private discussion.
On the Louis Theroux podcast, Jade revealed she broke down crying in her car after hearing the news, prompting partner Jordan to spring into action.
She said: ‘We were driving up North to see my family. I just wailed and wailed for an hour or something.
‘We parked up at services and he was like, ”do you want some peace?”. And I was like, ”yes”.’
‘That’s when I knew he was a keeper because he was like, ”are you alright on your own for a little bit?”. I mean, I couldn’t actually speak. So I was screaming.
‘And then he went out into the shops and he came back with a pasty from Greggs and I thought, ”that’s the one”.’
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