Influencer Lorna Luxe has opened up about her past battle with anorexia, detailing how the disorder consumed her life and led her to adopt extreme measures, including secret workouts. Speaking on Davina McCall's podcast, "Begin Again," Luxe, 43, recalled becoming severely unwell after taking a job as an air hostess.

Luxe explained that her eating disorder began to manifest during university when she gained weight. She noted a perceived difference in how people treated her after losing weight, stating, "I also saw that people treat you differently, right? So I had interest from men I'd never had that before."

Her experience with Virgin Atlantic interviews in 2002 also played a role. "They weighed you, they checked your height, they took a photo of your face, they wanted to see what you'd look like in the uniform. This was the norm back then," she said. Luxe believes she was rewarded for losing weight to meet these requirements, which instilled a constant concern about maintaining her size.

"Maintaining weight because if you changed uniform size, you got pulled into the office because it cost the business money," Luxe explained. "So all these things were playing in my mind."

Living in Brighton, Luxe described a period of heavy partying and poor eating habits, making weight management an "absolute full-time job." Her travel as an air hostess provided opportunities to engage in behaviors unnoticed. "You stay down route somewhere for a couple of days, no one's going to see what you're up to," she said.

At the peak of her illness, Luxe admitted to working out with extreme dedication, describing herself as a "manic obsessive." She would often go to gyms twice a day, with one session kept entirely secret from her then-partner, John. "I'd be there for two, three hours and when I look back now I'm impressed at you know the energy I put into that," she recalled. "How was I even keeping going? You get into this very war mindset where I was doing daft things and my behaviours were changing, my mood swings were up and down I was permanently cold."

Luxe shared an anecdote about a friend, Cla, who had also suffered from anorexia and recognized the signs in Luxe. "She went, 'You've got a problem. This is not good. You need to look after yourself. I'm here if you need me.'" Luxe admitted to reacting disrespectfully to this concern, employing defense mechanisms to ward off discussions about her eating disorder.

"I've worked really hard to be skinny so you're not going to [ __ ] with this now. And that was my headspace," she said. "I was like, 'don't you dare try and come for me on this because this is the the only thing I'm really good at'."

Luxe noted that her late husband, John, who died in February 2026 at the age of 64 after a battle with adrenal cancer, would express concern about her weight loss. "He would often say like you just you lost a bit too much weight now. 'You're beautiful but you've just gone a bit too far'," she recalled.

Reflecting on her recovery, Luxe stated, "Thank God that I've come through the other end now. I definitely have control issues but just with different things now like my business is what I control and I John certainly gave me those tools to feel like I'm your safe place. You don't need to be in control anymore because I've got you. And he kind of stepped into that role for me in a big way."