The Florence and the Machine frontwoman, who has battled anorexia and gave up drinking 8 years ago, shares that she has a strong support system that helps her go through it.
- May 2, 2022
AceShowbiz - Florence Welch thinks it is "a miracle" she didn't have an eating disorder relapse during lockdown. The Florence and the Machine frontwoman, who has battled anorexia and gave up drinking 8 years ago, admitted her sobriety meant she didn't get a "brain break" during the long periods of having to stay at home and isolate from others and came the "closest" she ever has to returning to her old patterns with food.
"When you're sober it is unfiltered reality all day every day. You don't get a brain break," the 35-year-old singer said. "I really f****** empathize with anyone who did relapse in those two years because I think it was probably the closest I've ever thought about it."
"There were moments when I was like, 'Should I be starting to cut back on my sugar? Or should I do a cleanse?' And that for me is just a slippery slope," she elaborated. "Anorexia provides a feeling off certainty, because you're just like, I'm going to control this."
Fortunately, the "Hunger" hitmaker has a strong support network. She added in an interview with Britain's Vogue magazine, "Luckily, I have people I can talk to and that's one of the most important things for anyone to keep talking about it. And not to be ashamed if those thoughts come up." And Florence developed another "obsession" during the pandemic, vacuuming. She quipped, "Florence and the Machine was Florence and the F****** Hoover."
In 2018, the "Shake it Out" hitmaker admitted she worried she would die if she didn't give up alcohol, even though she felt that being an "extreme identity" was a huge part of who she was. She said, "Being an extreme drinker was a huge part of my identity. Music and alcohol are sort of my first two loves."
"When I stopped, there was this sense that I was letting some ghost of rock history down that I just couldn't cope anymore. It was monumental," she went on explaining. "It wasn't like, 'I want to be healthy and I need a change of pace.' It was like, 'I'm going to die. I need to stop.'"
And Florence also admitted she hit the bottle in a bit do "hide" from fame and how it had changed her life. She said, "That's when the drinking and the partying exploded, as a way to hide from it. I was drunk a lot of the time, on extra dirty Martinis - my way of drinking three shots at once. I was never interested in 'a nice glass of wine'."
"I'd be like, 'I'm not quite sure [where I am], but I'm wearing someone else's clothes...' The partying was about me not wanting to deal with the fact my life had changed, not wanting to come down. It always felt like something had picked me up and thrown me around various rooms and houses, then gone 'Boom!' It happened every time, and every time it was shocking."
