Charli XCX in ‘worst place mentally that I’ve been in my life’
By Casey Cooper-Fiske, Press Association Senior Entertainment Reporter
Brat star Charli XCX has said she is currently “in the worst place mentally that I’ve been in my life”.
The 33-year-old, whose real name is Charlotte Aitchison, also said she is planning how to make her next tour less physically draining, and added she has a “complicated relationship” with being onstage.
She suffered nerve damage in her neck on her last tour after “rolling around on the floor”.
The singer launched a cultural moment in “Brat summer” with the release of the 2024 album of the same name, causing a frenzy on social media which involved sultry fashion choices inspired by the green and black album cover.
She said she has been using social media less to improve her mental health.
She told Rolling Stone: “I have actually been a lot more offline, I don’t really look as much anymore. It’s just better for my brain.
“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.”
Charli, who is currently preparing to release her latest album Music, Fashion, Film, also said she is a “big believer” in therapy to deal with her mental health problems – but said she needs to go more often.
She also said she has reduced her coffee consumption to ease anxiety, is planning to cut back on media interviews and is not interested in discussing the meaning behind her songs.
The 360 singer added: “It’s just how I feel. People already think I’m a bitch, so… I’m very much at peace with it. It’s cool, and it’s not drama or anything like that.
“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.”
It comes after the Cambridge-born star released the singles Rock Music and SS26, accompanied by their respective b-sides, I Keep Thinking About You Every Single Day And Night and Playboy Bunny, which were only available on physical release and her B.sides Instagram account.
Her album cover for Music, Fashion, Film features The Velvet Underground star John Cale, Goodfellas director Martin Scorsese and fashion designer Marc Jacobs.
The new music follows her Wuthering Heights companion album to Emerald Fennell’s film of the same name earlier this year, as well as her film, The Moment, a semi-fictional look at the release of Brat and the world tour that followed.
She has also appeared in other film projects this year including Pete Ohs’s Erupcja and Julia Jackman’s 100 Nights Of Hero.
Charli has had two UK number one singles and three number one albums, and is best known for tracks such as Boom Clap, Guess and I Love It with Swedish duo Icona Pop.