Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall Reveals Doctors Once Warned Her That Anorexia Would Kill Her

Little Mix star Jade Thirlwall has revealed doctors once warned her that anorexia was going to kill her.

Jade battled the eating disorder in her teens, before finding fame after auditioning for The X Factor in 2011.

Speaking to the BBC Sounds Life Hacks podcast, Jade discussed how her illness got to a point where she “just wanted to sort of waste away”.

Jade Thirlwall

She said: “I obviously became very small and my ribs were sticking out. I was very gaunt and I used to wear a lot of baggy clothes to hide that.

“In my head, I felt so down and so depressed about everything that was going on in my life, I really just wanted to sort of waste away.

“I got in a really horrible state.”

She also said her “turning point” came when she “got tired of hating [herself] so much”, describing her situation as a “really horrible hole to be in”. 

Jade, who first spoke about her anorexia in Little Mix’s 2016 book Our World, continued: “The second turning point for me was when I was at hospital and the doctors told me that I would actually die if I kept doing it.

“To hear somebody say that to you is actually quite scary and I started to realise how damaging it was for my family.

“I’d become so selfish with how I felt about myself I forgot that I had family and friends who were also really hurting because of what I was doing.”

Jade with her Little Mix bandmates

After seeking help, Jade was discharged not long before she went on The X Factor, and does not expect she will ever relapse.

“It’s weird for me because I feel like me having anorexia is literally like a different person – I don’t associate it at all with who I am now,” she said.

“Because I got through it and honestly hand on heart I don’t think I would ever do that to myself again, because I realise how life-changing it was to become better.”

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