Charli XCX has candidly confessed that she was recently “in the worst place mentally that (she’s) ever been” in her life.
In a cover interview for Rolling Stone, conducted two days before the Met Gala in early May, the 360 hitmaker admitted that the discourse surrounding her and her creative output is “loud” and can be “very overwhelming” at times.
As a result, Charli has tried to be on social media less for the sake of her mental health.
“I have actually been a lot more offline. I don’t really look as much anymore. It’s just better for my brain,” she explained. “I know people probably won’t believe me, because I am inherently, at least in the past, a very online artist. But I recently have been really struggling with my mental health to the point where, if I’m being real, I’m in the worst place mentally that I’ve been in my life.”
The British pop star also set some boundaries during the interview, insisting that she didn’t want to talk about the meaning behind her new songs, even if that made her seem like “a b**ch”.
“It’s just how I feel. People already think I’m a b**ch, so… I’m very much at peace with it,” she said. “It’s just me trying to do what’s good for me, because it got to a place where my anxiety was physically affecting me, and I can’t actually proceed in life like that.”
The Von Dutch singer shared that she has been trying to ease her anxiety by cutting down on coffee, going to therapy more consistently and making sure her next tour will be less physically exhausting than her Brat trek.
In a follow-up interview two weeks later, the 34-year-old confessed that she was still trying to come to terms with the chatter online.
“I am finding it tough to… I don’t know,” she noted. “I’m finding my emotions are very, very volatile at the minute, I’ll be honest.”
Charli added that she doesn’t always “feel safe” doing press and is going to step away from interviews for a while.
“This is probably going to be my last long-form interview with a journalist for a minute,” she declared. “You got in there right at the end.”
Her next album, Music, Fashion, Film, will be released on 24 July.
