Jaymi Hensley has revealed negative comments about his weight made him depressed.
The former ‘X Factor’ contestant – who appeared on the show with his band Union J in 2012 – has opened up about how negative comments on a photo of him on holiday three years ago have "affected [his] mental health".
Speaking to The Sun newspaper, the 26-year-old star said: "The headlines were ‘Fat Jamie’ and ‘Beer Belly’. All of the other boys were ending up on these sites like, ‘Fit Famous Males’ and I was on ‘Bros with Bellies’. It was awful.
"After that it affected the holiday. I wouldn’t go to the beach, I wouldn’t take my top off. That stemmed the last three years. I started not eating. I would never get changed in front of people.
"I actually made myself not very well at all and that really affected my mental health.
"I lost a good two and a half to three stone since X Factor and became very skinny.
"I would binge eat. My biggest demon was food. I would get skinny so that I could eat again, then I wouldn’t eat so I could get skinny again."
The ‘Carry You’ hitmaker – who was joined on the talent show by Josh Cuthbert, JJ Hamblett, and George Shelley before George departed to pursue a solo career – also admits that at the height of Union J’s success, he was drinking heavily every night.
He said: "I was able to go to these clubs that you couldn’t ever get into in your wildest dreams before.
"You would go out with people you didn’t really know and they didn’t care if you got absolutely smashed.
"I would go out to three in the morning and get up at seven and go straight to work.
"I was making myself ill. I was doing everything I possibly could to numb it.
"We were socialising with people who were very famous and very powerful. You’d go in and there’d be free drinks on the tables, and by free drinks I mean ridiculous amounts of free alcohol."
Union J’s Jaymi Hensley battled depression over weight comments
