09 September 2019
Newsdesk
Jesy Nelson used to starve herself in the lead-up to performances as she battled a severe eating disorder.
In a candid interview with The Guardian ahead of her upcoming BBC documentary Jesy Nelson: Odd One Out, the Little Mix star admitted she used to live off soft drinks in a bid to look good on stage.
"I'd drink Diet Coke for a solid four days and then, when I felt a bit dizzy, I'd eat a pack of ham because I knew it had no calories," Jesy, 28, shared. "Then I'd binge eat, then hate myself."
However, she insisted she didn't think of herself as having an eating disorder, adding: "I could see that I was losing weight and sometimes I'd see a few good comments and that spiralled me to be like: 'This is how I need to stay.'"
The shocking revelation came shortly after the star confessed she attempted to take her own life with an overdose of pills, as online bullying reached fever pitch two years after her group's talent show win on The X Factor U.K. in 2011.
Reflecting on the incident, and how her outlook on life has changed since, she told the publication: "I felt that I physically couldn't tolerate the pain any more.
"Don't get me wrong, I still have days when I feel s**t in myself," the Black Magic singer added. "But instead of beating myself up about it and being miserable, I think: 'OK, I'm going to have my moment of being sad, and I'll be over it.' Before, I didn't let myself be sad."
