Holly Hagan reveals she didn’t ‘leave the house alone for TWO years’ due to Geordie Shore trolling

Geordie Shore’s Holly Hagan has revealed she didn’t leave the house for two years as she struggled to cope with anxiety due to online trolling

Holly shot to fame on Geordie Shore in 2011, when she was just aged 19, and said constant comments about her appearance affected her greatly. 

She detailed her battle with social media bullying on special one-off episode, Geordie Shore’s: Holly’s Story, which aired on Tuesday evening.   

Her friends also sat down in front of the camera and disclosed that her anxiety got so bad, she felt ‘imprisoned in her own home’. 

She appeared on the hit reality show from the first episode in 2011 to the finale in 2016, and she was frequently s**t-shamed online and mocked for her looks. 

She reflected: ‘All these people that I knew were making Facebook groups about me, were writing statuses about me, were shouting things at me in the street and from that point, I don’t think I left the house alone for about two years.’ 

Her pal, Tom, recalled the affect that online trolling had on Holly and their friendship, as he revealed: ‘I think the worst time was when she had anxiety about leaving the house and she felt like she was imprisoned in her own home. 

‘We both didn’t drive at the time so we had to get taxis everywhere so that was another added stress and we couldn’t sort of escape quick, we didn’t have a car there.’

Her former co-star and friend, Sophie Kasaei, revealed there wasn’t much information about anxiety at the time of filming, so Holly found the best way to cope was bottling everything up and hiding at home. 

She added: ‘I remember Holly, she found it really hard to deal with the trolls, especially. I didn’t even know what anxiety was then, there wasn’t really much knowledge about it and I think for Holly, she just sort of hid away from everything.’ 

The online backlash that she experienced from the show affected her self-esteem, as the reality star revealed last Tuesday that she struggles with body dysmorphia. 

Speaking candidly about her body issues on Superdrug’s The Beauty if it All podcast with Vick Hope, she previously said: ‘I have hidden my legs as a secret for years after I saw my mum doing the same and it’s really important for me to gain more confidence.   

‘I asked my surgeon to give me the biggest possible implants when I was 18. And I was only 18. I don’t think surgery should even really be allowed until you’re 25 as you’re mental stability isn’t where its supposed to be to make those huge decisions.

‘The trolls had the biggest impact on me, being called fat and ugly for so many years, I thought if I am skinny and pretty then maybe the trolling will stop, so I went on this mission to be skinnier and prettier and I had these procedures done to be like what society would deem more beautiful.

‘But then the trolling turned and it was ”she’s too skinny she’s had too much surgery.”   

She added that now she is older, she has realised what matters is what’s ‘in your head and your heart’ rather than what you look like. 

Holly went on to discuss her battle with bulimia, saying: ‘I would lose weight and then gain it during filming for Geordie Shore when we eat takeaways and put it back on and I would make myself sick.

‘It was just a way to cope, I would do it seven times a day at one point. My teeth went yellow and I had acid reflux.’

She added that she got better when she met her fiancé Jacob Blyth who ‘loves every part of her’ and when she began telling herself compliments.