Shaughna Phillips: ‘I Felt Like Love Island’s Box-Ticking Fat Girl’

Shaughna says she spent 'lots of time crying to the therapist' about her struggle with lipoedema, an abnormal accumulation of fat in the legs.

love island Shaughna Phillips

by Bonnie McLaren |
Updated on

Shaughna Phillips has spoken candidly about her time in the Love Island villa, saying her struggle with lipoedema meant she spent 'lots of time crying to the therapist'. It was only after being on Love Island that the 26 year old discovered she had the condition, an abnormal accumulation of fat in the legs, which led to her undergoing liposuction (to drain fat from her calves) in September.

'When I went on Love Island, I spent lots of time crying to the therapist,' Shaughna admitted in an interview with The Sun. 'I was surrounded by these lovely looking girls, and I felt like the show’s box-ticking fat girl.'

The condition is something Shaughna has struggled with since school, but she says she only found out about it after others messaged her following her time in the villa. 'I would get constant bruising on my legs, and they would be so painful but I had no idea what it was,' she explained. 'When I came off the show I had all these messages asking if I had been diagnosed with lipoedema — I had no idea what it meant but it was a breakthrough for me.'

As Shaughna says in the interview, 'lipoedema is progressive, and diet nor exercise affects it'. 'I have had liposuction on my lower legs,' the reality star added, speaking about her surgery. 'It’s something that I have been suffering with physically and mentally my whole life and it has now been sorted. So I am not ashamed or embarrassed to say I have had that done. It was to help with a condition I have, and hopefully it will help others too.'

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