Love Island star Siânnise Fudge has celebrated her new figure with fans following a battle with depression and anxiety.
In the picture, posted on Sunday, Siânnise beamed at the camera whilst donning a black bikini on a spa day.
Alongside it, she wrote of being ‘so proud’ of her weight gain journey, and that last year she was ‘very underweight’.
‘Took me a while, but I did it,’ she said.
The star opened up about her mental health struggles in summer last year, which she said resulted in ‘insomnia, extreme mood swings & losing two stone in weight’.
She continued: ‘I was insecure, lost all my confidence & I lacked love within myself. I couldn’t bare to look at myself in the mirror because I didn’t recognise myself both physically & mentally.
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‘I completely lost myself and I wasn’t sure who I was as a person anymore. It affected my everyday life, my work & my relationships with friends and family. I felt like I wasn’t in control of my body, I lost interest in things I loved the most and I found it impossible to socialise.’
The 28-year-old cited messages she received on social media telling her she was ‘too skinny’ and that she should ‘eat some burgers’ as being particularly triggering.
She went on to explain that although she was ‘terrified’ of needles, she ‘begged’ the doctor to take her bloods to figure out the problem, but the results showed nothing was physically wrong.
It was then that Siânnise was diagnosed with severe anxiety.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CfjO3hgsmXB/
On getting better, the Love Island runner-up wrote: ‘I was lost, depressed and unhealthy, but somehow I developed the strength to work on myself. I turned every negative comment into fuel and motivation to get better and today I stand here, healed with a healthy mind & a happy heart.
‘I feel beautiful, confident & I love my body now more than ever.
‘I never understood mental health until I experienced it myself and how important it is. I urge everybody to be kind because you never know what someone is going through, everyone has a story.’
This came more than two years after Siânnise came second in season six of Love Island in 2020 alongside her ex-boyfriend Luke Trotman.
The pair stayed together for around a year after rising to fame whilst meeting on the show, but they split in 2021.
The reality series has a high-profile history of contestants suffering from mental health struggles, with Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis both tragically ending their own lives after leaving the show.
Love Island’s former host Caroline Flack also took her life in 2020, triggering the hashtag #BeKind to remind people that what they write on social media can have real-life consequences.
This year the producers of the new winter season – kicking off on 16 January – are taking extra steps to protect contestants and their families, including pausing their social media for the duration of their time on the show.
As for Siânnise, as she comes out the other side of what looks to have been a turbulent few years, the future is looking bright.
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