Sadly it’s not uncommon for women who hit the peak of their fame in the noughties, when intrusive paparazzi culture was rife, to speak about how the experience ruined their mental health – and Keira Knightley is no exception, opening up about how she managed to keep a breakdown out of the public eye.
Recalling how after her profile grew as a young actor, she’d regularly have men camped outside her home, trying to get a photograph of her doing, well, pretty much anything. As a result, she tried to split her time between two homes and began to wear the same couple of outfits on rotation (knowing that a paparazzi photo of her in the same clothing as the day before wouldn’t be worth half as much).
“I did go mad,” Keira shares in a new interview with The Times. “Believe me. I went mad. I just managed to hide it.”
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“[These men would shout] ‘whore’, ‘slut’ sometimes. Particularly if I was with someone — a boyfriend, my brother or my dad. They were trying to get a reaction out of them — provoking people into punching them, so they could sue.”
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The Black Doves star explains that this behaviour over time left her feeling trapped and chipped away at her mental health.
“You start worrying you’re going mad, like, ‘Were they really following me, or was I imagining it?’ So then you’d buy all the papers — and every single time I was right,” she shares. “There would be a photo. Even if I hadn’t actually seen them. Because you’re in a hyper-vigilant state.”
Keira adds that her feelings of paranoia took years to subside, with the experience prompting her to choose smaller more intimate theatre roles over Hollywood blockbusters.
Thankfully, she’s now in a much better place and has just released a new children’s book, I Love You Just The Same, which she has both written and illustrated herself, as well as starring in Netflix thriller, The Woman in Cabin 10.
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Jennifer Savin is Cosmopolitan UK’s multiple award-winning Features Editor, who was crowned Digital Journalist of the Year for her work tackling the issues most important to young women. She regularly covers breaking news, cultural trends, health, the royals and more, using her esteemed connections to access the best experts along the way. She’s grilled everyone from high-profile politicians to A-list celebrities, and has sensitively interviewed hundreds of people about their real life stories. In addition to this, Jennifer is widely known for her own undercover investigations and campaign work, which includes successfully petitioning the government for change around topics like abortion rights and image-based sexual abuse. Jennifer is also a published author, documentary consultant (helping to create BBC’s Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next?) and a patron for Y.E.S. (a youth services charity). Alongside Cosmopolitan, Jennifer has written for The Times, Women’s Health, ELLE and numerous other publications, appeared on podcasts, and spoken on (and hosted) panels for the Women of the World Festival, the University of Manchester and more. In her spare time, Jennifer is a big fan of lipstick, leopard print and over-ordering at dinner. Follow Jennifer on Instagram, X or LinkedIn.