Charli xcx: "I'm in the Worst Place Mentally I've Ever Been in My Life"

Behind the image of a cool girl with oversized sunglasses and a cigarette in hand, the woman who created "Brat Summer" is fighting a quiet internal battle. In a candid conversation with Rolling Stone, Charli xcx admitted for the first time that she is going through the hardest period of her mental health in her entire career — even as she stands at an unprecedented peak of fame.

"I know people probably won't believe me, because I am inherently, at least in the past, a very online artist," she said. "But I recently have been really struggling with my mental health to the point where, if I'm being real, I'm in the worst place mentally that I've been in my life." This is not the first time she has spoken about the pressures of her profession, but it is the first time she has placed them where they truly belong — not as a backdrop to a success story, but as the center of a very real crisis.

For an artist who built an entire brand on her digital presence, Charli xcx's decision to step back from social media carries its own particular weight. "I have actually been a lot more offline," she shared. "I don't really look as much anymore. It's just better for my brain." The words are brief, but they speak to a fundamental shift in the thinking of a woman who once treated the internet as her home turf. The digital space that had been her bridge to millions of fans had quietly become a source of exhaustion. "The discourse is loud, and sometimes that can be very overwhelming," she added.

In her 2026 mockumentary The Moment, produced by A24, Charli depicted a version of herself experiencing extreme career anxiety, frantically making career-defining decisions and dealing with the constant input of others around her. The film, despite its fictional elements, contains far more than a piece of art. It is a coded confession, a way for Charli to say things she was not yet ready to say directly in interviews.

The psychological exhaustion did not stop at an emotional level. She acknowledged that the anxiety had begun to affect her body in specific and alarming ways. "It got to a place where my anxiety was physically affecting me, and I can't actually proceed in life like that," she said. In response, she began making changes to a number of small but meaningful habits: cutting back on coffee, rethinking how she approaches work, and most importantly, spending more time with her husband, The 1975 drummer George Daniel.

In the broader portrait of Charli xcx's life, her marriage to George Daniel is a particularly significant chapter — not only for its personal meaning, but for the way it has shaped her artistry. The two first collaborated on No Rome's 2021 single "Spinning," before going public with their relationship in 2022.

From the studio to everyday life, the line between love and art in their world has always been beautifully blurred. After getting engaged in November 2023, Charli opened up about what it was like to be in a relationship with a fellow musician: "It's funny, I have never sort of been in a relationship with someone that I've worked with, so it's like a whole new dynamic. But it's cool."

Their wedding took place not once but twice, in keeping with their signature brat-coded style. The first ceremony was held on July 19, 2025, at Hackney Town Hall in London, in front of a small group of around 20 guests including Charli's parents and The 1975's bandmates. The bride wore an off-the-shoulder Vivienne Westwood mini dress paired with her trademark chunky black sunglasses, while the groom opted for a simple black suit.

The second ceremony followed on September 14 in Sicily, on a larger scale, with a guest list that included Matty Healy, Troye Sivan, Julia Fox, Rachel Sennott, and many others. Charli later joked that "everyone was hungover" the morning after the Sicilian celebration. No one doubted it.

To understand why the post-Brat period has carried such immense pressure, it helps to look back at the scale of what Charli xcx achieved in under two years. Brat became one of the defining pop records of the decade, earning critical acclaim, Grammy recognition, and inspiring the broader cultural phenomenon known as "Brat Summer." At the 2025 BRIT Awards, she swept all five categories she had been nominated in, including Artist of the Year and Album of the Year. Her Grammy haul was equally striking: she won Best Dance Pop Recording for "Von Dutch," Best Dance/Electronic Album, and Best Recording Package for Brat.

Charli xcx — born Charlotte Emma Aitchison — is very much a product of the internet age. She began her career during the height of MySpace, when her early amateur recordings caught the attention of a promoter organizing illegal raves in London. The name Charli XCX, by her own account, came from her old MSN Messenger username, where she would sign off conversations with "XCX." She broke into the mainstream as a featured guest on Icona Pop's 2013 single "I Love It," followed by Iggy Azalea's 2014 smash "Fancy," which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. From damp warehouse raves to Grammy stages, her journey is proof of what persistence and a distinct identity can build.

But fame has never been easy to digest. She is continuing to expand into film with upcoming projects including Cathy Yan's The Gallerist and an untitled collaboration with Japanese horror director Takashi Miike. Earlier in 2026, she also delivered the soundtrack to Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.

When asked whether she ever feels the need to rest, she is characteristically blunt: "I don't fucking have hobbies. This is my life. It's every single fiber of my being." That is simultaneously her greatest strength and her most exposed vulnerability — a woman who has poured everything into her art, with nowhere left to retreat.

The cruel irony is that this very dedication has created an inescapable pressure. When Brat became a cultural phenomenon, when the album's lime-green color saturated every corner of the internet in memes and references, when Kamala Harris used her music in a presidential campaign, Charli xcx stopped being simply an artist and became a symbol. And symbols are not allowed to be tired. They are not allowed to be confused or to need air. She held that image together until her body began carrying what her mind could no longer hold alone.

This is precisely why Charli xcx's story about mental health should not be read as a footnote. It is the core of an artist attempting to redefine her relationship with fame on her own terms. Rather than retreating entirely, she is choosing a different kind of connection — more intimate, less noisy. "I'm interested in making things really intimate between me and my audience, and sitting down one-on-one with a person and having a conversation," she said. That is a striking shift for a woman who once wielded social media like a tool for mass conquest.

Amid all of this, her new album Music, Fashion, Film is shaping up to be a defining turning point. The 11-track record is set for release on July 24 via Atlantic Records. Lead single "Rock Music" immediately sparked debate with its heavily distorted guitars and the bold declaration that "the dance floor is dead" — leaving fans unable to determine whether this was a genuine reinvention or an elaborate provocation.

The album cover features three figures representing each element of the title: John Cale, a founding member of the Velvet Underground; fashion designer Marc Jacobs; and filmmaker Martin Scorsese. It is a visual manifesto: Charli xcx is not simply interested in making music anymore. She wants to position herself within a broader frame of reference, one where music, fashion, and cinema converge.

And that is precisely what she has done consistently throughout her career. "All of my albums work in opposites," she explained. "They repel against each other, and that's the connective tissue." She knew from the moment she was making Brat that she would never return to it. "I knew when I was making it that I was never going to make that record again. It's not creatively rewarding for me to make the same thing twice." In an industry that constantly tempts artists to mine their successes until they run dry, that is a position that demands genuine courage.

Perhaps what is most striking is not that Charli xcx is struggling with her mental health, but that she is willing to speak about it with this degree of honesty. In a world where stars typically wait until they have recovered before sharing their difficult seasons, she has chosen to speak while still in the middle of the storm. Not to generate sympathy, not to market something, but because — as she has always demonstrated through her music — raw honesty is the only way she knows how to exist authentically with herself, and with the people who listen to her.