Perrie Edwards made X Factor history as part of Little Mix – the first girl group to win the talent show back in 2011.
Since then, she has become a household name. The musician, who is currently pregnant with her second child, sat down with the BBC to discuss her time in Little Mix for BBC Two documentary Girlbands Forever, which will begin airing on Saturday (November 1).
But away from the pop group, she’s had her fair share of health challenges, from mental health issues to a rare childhood condition.
Over the years, she has slowly shared more about her complicated health journey, and as we prepare to welcome her back to our screens, here’s the full breakdown.
Perrie Edwards has had no sense of smell since birth
Perrie has an unusual health condition – the star has no sense of smell (Credit: Splash News)
Something fans might not know is that Perrie has been diagnosed with congenital anosmia, which is essentially a lack of sense of smell since birth. It’s a rare condition, with the Mirror reporting that it only affects 1 in 10,000 people.
The story of how she discovered she had the condition is pretty dramatic. While her family’s kitchen caught on fire, Perrie was blissfully unaware. “I couldn’t smell it,” she told the Mirror. “Our kitchen had set on fire. I saw the black smoke come under the door. And then I started coughing because it takes your breath away.”
Fortunately, there was no lasting damage. But the incident spurred her mum to have her tested, which then led to a young Perrie having surgery to try and restore her sense of smell. And it worked — for a while.
“I had surgery, came out, had big tampons in my nose, recovered for a while,” she continued. “And then I swear to God I could smell coffee. I woke up and smelled the coffee.”
Sadly, it wasn’t long before Perrie was left without a sense of smell once again. Despite this, she decided not to move forward with any further surgeries. “I was like, I’m not going through that again. I don’t care. If I had it and lost it, fair enough. But I’ve never had it, so why care?”
She has a rare oesophagus condition, which wasn’t diagnosed for seven years
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