Katriona O’Sullivan: ‘A lot of my friends have had gastric sleeves. They’re on Ozempic. They’ve had their face done, their arse done. If you look at the more educated woman, it’s very different – it looks like wellness’

Sex, pleasure, abuse, slimming clubs, gastric bands, pregnancy, addiction, food… in her new book, Katriona O’Sullivan bares all on the subject of her body. Here, she talks about how being sexual abused a child affected her relationship with her body, toxic diet culture and a life spent trying to shrink herself

Katriona O’Sullivan. Photo: Ruth Medjber

We’ve barely sat down in the bar of a Dublin 8 hotel when two women make a tentative approach. “We’re psychology students,” they explain, fizzing with enthusiasm. “Everyone on the course idolises you.”

Katriona O’Sullivan, academic, psychologist and author, takes all of this in her stride. She immediately stands up for a selfie and a kind word, in a way that makes me believe this isn’t an irregular occurrence.