#Halsey Reveals Struggle With Eating Disorder — And Apologizes For Triggering Fans

Halsey has always been candid about her mental health, but sometimes opening up — even with the best intentions — can also cause harm.

The pop star has never shied away from letting fans in on the turmoil behind the scenes, openly addressing her bipolar disorder and even revealing in 2019 that she’d been committed twice since she rose to fame. She’s been a leading voice in destigmatizing mental health issues and removing shame from the discussion. With that in mind, it’s not a surprise that she would want to share her struggle with disordered eating — but some fans had a problem with the way she went about it.

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The reveal came about when the Graveyard singer participated in a new social media trend, where fans can ask celebs to post photos of certain moments or memories on their Instagram Stories. In a since-deleted post (we will show you the full pic below), one fan asked for a pic from her “lowest point.” The 26-year-old shared a (presumably old) photo of her side profile, wearing only underwear and dangerously thin. She captioned the shot:

“TW: ED
Ask for help “

Of course, because she posted the trigger warning, or “TW”, on the IG Story itself (and not covering any of the triggering image, either) it didn’t actually serve as a true warning — anyone viewing her story would have gotten an eyeful.

If you want to see the pic we’re talking about, you can view (below), and here is your final TRIGGER WARNING. It is a pretty upsetting pic.

So if you don’t think you can handle it, stop here or zoom down past the photo…

After facing backlash for improperly labeling the triggering content, the Manic artist took to Twitter to respond. In a few deleted tweets (seen below), she wrote:

“I don’t need to be yelled at in the name of being educated right now. I made an honest mistake because I was nervous to share one of the worst times of my life with tens millions [sic] of people. My desire to be confident overshadowed my knowledge of how to share triggering content.”

“the post was removed from my insta immediately LAST NIGHT upon better judgment and if you are still sharing it with the intent of making my action seem malicious you are hurting people the very way you are accusing me of having done.”

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Halsey (real name Ashley Frangipane) eventually admitted she wished she “hadn’t said anything at all,” and decided to step back from the conversation. She tweeted:

“TW: disordered eating

I am very sorry for posting a photo of myself depicting my struggle with ED without a sufficient trigger warning. I was very nervous to post it and didn’t think properly. I had positive intentions. I would never want to harm someone who shares my struggle.”

“with that being said im gonna log off now because this has turned into something I am not emotionally equipped to handle for the time being. I hope that’s okay “

This is really tricky — eating disorder related content is definitely one of the most important subjects for which to use trigger warnings. That being said, considering we don’t think Halsey had ever shared about her experiences with ED before, it seems like this misfire came from a place of genuinely wanting to reach out to fans with similar issues.

We hope she’s in a healthier place now and that when she’s ready to talk about it again, it can be in a safe environment for herself and her fans.

[Image via WENN/Avalon/Halsey/Instagram]