‘Game of Thrones’ Star Sophie Turner Reveals She Grew ‘Quite Sick’ Because of Eating Disorder

Sophie Turner is opening up about becoming “quite sick” after struggling with an eating disorder “for a long time.” In a new interview with Elle UK, the Game of Thrones alum, 26, revealed how much negative comments about her appearance on social media affected her at a young age and how a live-in therapist helped her work through the difficult time in her life.

“For a long time, I was quite sick with an eating disorder and I had a companion … a live-in therapist, who would ensure I wasn’t doing anything unhealthy with my eating habits,” Turner shared. Having entered the public eye at only 16 when cast as Sansa Stark on the hit HBO show exposed the star to a lot of body image issues early on. 

“I have a love-hate relationship with social media. I wish I’d never got myself involved with it in the first place,” she said. “I look at the comments on Instagram and think, ‘Oh, f—. Everyone thinks this about me.’ It would completely consume me.” Looking back at a breakthrough moment with her therapist, Turner recalled what helped her reframe negative Instagram comments mentally.

“One night, I was playing over and over in my mind a comment I’d seen on Instagram. I was like, ‘I’m so fat, I’m so undesirable,’ and spinning out,” Turner remembered. “She said to me, ‘You know, no one actually cares. I know you think this, but nobody else is thinking it. You’re not that important.’” That was “the best thing anyone could have told me,” the X-Men: Dark Pheonix star said.

Now that Turner is a mother to 22-month-old daughter Willa and expecting her second child with husband Joe Jonas, she’s decided to take Instagram off her phone altogether. “I have noticed that social media makes me incredibly anxious and it’s something I try to distance myself from,” she said. “Having it off my phone has been so helpful. Now, if I do have to go on it, it’s for a few minutes once or twice a week, rather than hours every day. It’s made such a difference. Live real life – it’s much more fun.”