Tragic Details About Florence Welch
Trigger warning: This article contains mentions of suicide, disordered eating, mental health issues, and addiction.
Since the London-based indie band Florence and the Machine emerged in 2007, Florence Welch's voice has been an iconic presence on the radio. Having released catchy tracks like "Kiss with a Fist" and "Dog Days Are Over" in 2008, the singer and songwriter quickly rose to fame, and there's no doubt that today, over a decade and five studio albums later, you would recognize Welch instantly for her poetic lyrics and warm sunset-red hair color.
Welch has never been one to mince words, having often been open to the public about the difficult times she's been through. In a 2018 interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune, the singer explained how she's used her music to help her process, saying, "I think I'm always trying to ... get some kind of sense of clarity about my feelings in songwriting or in making music. And you just keep testing yourself and how vulnerable you can be and how close to the truth you can get. I'm always trying to dig a bit deeper, or say something that is scarier to me than I've said before."
The misfortune in Welch's life began during her most formative years and carried through to today, from her difficulties at school to a years-long addiction. Here are the tragic details about the Florence and the Machine singer, and how many of her circumstances resulted in soul-stirring songs.
Florence Welch was diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia
Florence Welch was born in south London in 1987 to a family that encouraged her love of performance. She sang in the school choir and performed at family events before ever receiving singing lessons, which she took up at 11 years old. However, while Welch was killing it vocally, school was another story.
Speaking with The Telegraph in 2009, the "You've Got the Love" singer explained, "I was just quite absent, mentally as well as most of the time physically." Welch was diagnosed with dyslexia, a learning disorder that can impact the ability to read and write, as well as dyspraxia, a condition that affects movement and coordination, and can cause clumsiness. Rather than focusing on school work, she stated that she preferred climbing trees or spending time at the library, and her lack of concentration had her parents worried.
Despite this setback, Welch told The Irish Times in 2012 that she was "very proud to be dyspraxic," and hadn't let her dyspraxia diagnosis get in the way of what she wanted to do. "The fact that I work in a creative industry probably helps. In fact I think in some ways it has helped. We dyspraxics think in a different way," she said.
Her parents divorced when she was 13
When Florence Welch was 13 years old, her parents Evelyn and Nick Welch filed for divorce. While this isn't an uncommon event many children and teens face at some point in their lives, this situation became even more tumultuous by the fact that the singer's mom married their next-door neighbor soon after. The two families moved in together, and Welch suddenly had three new siblings. Having already had two younger siblings beforehand, the household grew to a grand total of eight, and space seemed like a luxury.
In speaking with The Telegraph in a 2009 interview, Welch remarked, "[My stepfather] had three kids, so it was like the Brady Bunch. We'd grown up with those kids, then they become your family and the whole dynamics change. It was horrible for a long time, as we all really hated each other."
While it's clear that the "Cosmic Love" singer's childhood wasn't a simple one, it seems Welch's relationship with her mom is still intact. Evelyn was interviewed by the Bristol Post in 2022, and she said, "I'm incredibly proud of her ... You want to protect your child, you want to look after them, but you also know that for her to be successful, she has to go out and present herself to the world."
Welch's grandmother died by suicide
Many years before she would go on to be nominated for several Grammy Awards, Florence Welch was just a teenager dealing with her family's complicated dynamic. Sadly, there was more tragedy in store for the young singer following her parents' divorce. Her grandmother, who had bipolar disorder, died by suicide when Welch was 14. As the "Rabbit Heart" singer told The Guardian in a 2010 interview, her relationship with her grandmother was difficult due to her mental illness, which can be characterized by dramatic shifts in mood and energy. "It was hard to be close to her, because she was on a lot of medication. For most of the time that I knew her, she wasn't very well at all," she explained.
Welch spoke again of her grandmother with The Guardian in 2022, detailing the generational trauma she believes has been passed down. "I think [my grandmother's] pain echoed down to my mother and then to me. My mother has put an absolute lid on it, in the most impressive way. I didn't inherit the lid, you know; I'm leaky and everything pours out," she said.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org
She had an eating disorder
In 2018, Florence and the Machine released the album "High as Hope," which featured a track in which the singer addressed dealing with an eating disorder in her teenage years. In the song "Hunger," Welch sang, "At seventeen I started to starve myself," and in a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone, Welch admitted she hadn't even told her mother about her eating disorder before she planned on releasing the recorded confession to the world.
When asked about when she had overcome her eating disorder, Welch answered, "I have a healthy relationship with my body now more than I ever did before, but it took me a long time." However, it's hard for her to pinpoint when she overcame it since it's still an ongoing healing journey. "Because you would have overcome some of the behavior a long time ago but the head stuff, it takes a while ... If you've been denying yourself nourishment in some way, you also have a tendency to deny yourself emotional nourishment."
Thankfully, it seems Welch is doing well in her recovery, as she wrote for British Vogue in 2019, "I haven't weighed myself in four years. ... To let go of that sometimes feels like a bigger achievement than headlining Glastonbury."
If you need help with an eating disorder, or know someone who does, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).
Welch dealt with alcohol addiction
Coming from the London scene, it's no surprise that Welch had been known to indulge in alcohol and the party lifestyle, but when she became famous, everything changed. "That's when the drinking and the partying exploded, as a way to hide from it. I was drunk a lot of the time, on extra dirty Martinis — my way of drinking three shots at once. I was never interested in a nice glass of wine," she told The Guardian in June 2018. Alcohol had become a form of escapism for Welch, as she continued, "The partying was about me not wanting to deal with the fact my life had changed, not wanting to come down."
Welch had to admit she couldn't carry on living this way, and on February 2, 2014, she stopped drinking for good. In a November 2018 interview with Rolling Stone, the "Bird Song" vocalist remarked that she had celebrated four years of sobriety that year. "Being an extreme drinker was a huge part of my identity. Music and alcohol are sort of my first two loves," she said. But she knew she needed to make an extreme lifestyle change. "It wasn't like, 'I want to be healthy and I need a change of pace.' It was like, 'I'm going to die. I need to stop,'" Welch said.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
She has been open about her depression
Welch has inspired countless fans with her breathtaking songs, filled with poignant lines that many can relate to. Because of this, it's no wonder some of the most tattooed song lyrics have been from Florence and the Machine songs like "Shake It Off," in which Welch sings about letting go of regrets and moving forward in life. In order to write so knowingly about the dark times, though, she has had to undergo many of them herself.
In a 2015 interview with Maclean's, Welch opened up about her struggles with depression and how her latest album at the time, "How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful," helped her cope with it. "For a while, I felt like I was in purgatory — in this weird limbo all the time. The record pieced me back together. The songs about the difficulties and depression actually then became the things that helped me," she explained.
If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.
Her break up with James Nesbitt was difficult
Florence and the Machine's 2015 album "How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful" was released off the back of Welch's breakup with James Nesbitt after dating the event planner for two years. In a 2018 interview with the Belfast Telegraph, she explained, "I was in such a bad place. Every part of the last record was like, dragged out of me ... Every bit of it was painful." As difficult as the album was to make, her heartbreak proved useful, as it became her first album to go platinum in the United States.
To make matters more difficult, the press had been hot on Welch's heels for years when it came to her relationships, and the breakup was highly publicized. However, it seems the artist is with a new man these days, and she's keeping their relationship a little more private this time. In 2022, Welch told Vogue that dating in her thirties has proven easier, as the media is less interested than when she was in her twenties. Plus, she has since learned, "You don't have to date bad people to make good songs."
She has broken her foot while performing twice
In April 2015, Welch had been performing on the third day of Coachella when she suffered a painful accident. She was giving the show of her life, encouraging audience members to take off their clothes and stripping down herself. Then she decided to kick things up a notch and crowd surf. As she explained to Billboard the following month, "As I landed ... I heard the crunch. But out of fear and adrenaline, with clothes flying everywhere, I kept running around, and then finally collapsed on the floor. And it looked like a big rock'n'roll fall for dramatic effect, but the truth is I just couldn't walk anymore. I crawled off the stage the wrong way. And there I was, crumpled behind a speaker, hugging my shirt, needing to be carried away."
Then, in August 2022, Welch shared some bad news to her fans via an Instagram post: her foot was broken yet again. The singer admitted that during a concert the night prior, she had been performing on a broken foot and had been advised not to carry out the remaining dates of the band's U.K. tour. Clearly devastated, Welch apologized to her fans and promised they were in the midst of rescheduling for the following year.
She regrets not being a better sister
Raised as the eldest of three siblings, the pressure of being a good influence was on Welch early on. Sadly, it's an expectation the singer doesn't feel she fully lived up to, as she's expressed regrets over her relationship with her little sister, Grace. In a 2018 interview with NPR, Welch spoke about how things had been between the girls since they were kids, saying, "When we were little, I was afraid of everything ... I would go and get into bed with her even though she was the younger sister. So this dynamic was already set up when we were kids that she was taking care of me. When I went on to have issues with alcohol and all of that stuff, she was always picking up the pieces and it became a big part of her character."
Welch went on to say that she deeply regretted her absence as an older sibling and that she had been working on being a better sister over the last few years. She also put her feelings for her little sister into a track titled "Grace" on Florence and the Machine's 2018 album, "High as Hope." The song revealed more of Welch's regrets, including ruining her sister's birthday and treating her poorly, but the chorus revolved around her love and gratitude for Grace.
She deals with anxiety and panic attacks
Welch has proven to be an open book, both in her deeply personal songs and in interviews. Her willingness to speak out about mental health, particularly about her own struggles, has made her an admirable figure in the music industry. While speaking with Sinéad Burke in 2019 on her podcast, "As Me with Sinéad," Welch discussed how she's dealt with anxiety and panic attacks for her entire life.
"I've been doing transcendental meditation for nearly five years now, and that's been hugely helpful. I actually had a really bad anxiety attack yesterday. And I get this thing where I think I'm dying," she said. Welch went on to describe what panic attacks feel like for her, saying, "My hands go tingly, my lips go tingly. I sort of think that it's very serious and I'm about to die and I have to lie on the floor and breathe." The singer said that the times she feels hardly any anxiety is when she's busy in the studio and working on her music.
Welch noted that, while she's always dealt with anxiety, it became particularly troublesome for her after she stopped drinking alcohol. In a 2022 interview with USA Today, the "Free" singer explained, "When your life basically is settled and stable, it's almost as if the body goes, 'OK, time to release this,' but it was confusing to me, like why?"
Welch almost relapsed during lockdown
The pandemic was difficult on a lot of people, and many found themselves passing the time with alcohol. For those who don't drink though, like Welch, lockdown was a particularly trying time when it came to sobriety. As she explained to British Vogue in April 2022, "When you're sober it is unfiltered reality all day every day. You don't get a brain break. I really f***ing empathize with anyone who did relapse in those two years because I think it was probably the closest I've ever thought about it."
Unfortunately, Welch didn't just nearly relapse on her alcohol addiction during lockdown; she struggled not to return to her unhealthy eating habits as well, and she wasn't the only one. According to a 2022 study, the stress and disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic created an uptick in eating disorders.
"There were moments when I was like, 'Should I be starting to cut back on my sugar? Or should I do a cleanse?' And that for me is just a slippery slope. Anorexia provides a feeling of certainty, because you're just like, I'm going to control this," Welch commented. Thankfully, the "King" singer emphasized that she had a strong support network in place and was able to get through lockdown without relapsing.
She had a life-saving surgery in 2023
In August 2023, Welch was forced to cancel more dates for Florence and the Machine's tour, including a festival in Zurich and the Rock en Seine festival near Paris. They had been on tour promoting their latest album — 2022's "Dance Fever" — but ironically, the cancellation wasn't due to her feet this time. Writing to her fans in an Instagram post, the singer apologetically explained, "I'm so sorry that I had to cancel the last couple of shows. My feet are fine, I had to have emergency surgery for reasons I don't really feel strong enough to go into yet, but it saved my life."
She added that at her next show, her fans would have to be doing the jumping for her. While Welch still hasn't gone into detail regarding this life-saving surgery she underwent, her post was soon flooded with supportive messages from fans wishing her a speedy recovery.