While a lot of the drama surrounding Earps focuses on her comments towards Hampton and Wiegman, the former Red Devil also opened up on several other important topics, including her experiences of bullying at school. Earps admitted she often felt disliked and withdrawn in group environments, which led to anxiety and panic attacks. She also revealed that during the Covid pandemic she turned to alcohol and restricted her diet to cope with depression and body image struggles.
“It was definitely conscious. For as long as I can remember, aside from the last few years where I’ve had a much healthier relationship with food, I’ve always felt like I wasn’t slim enough or athletic enough,” she said. “I was told I wasn’t strong enough or fast enough and my body fat was too high. To a certain point that’s OK as I’m an athlete – it comes with the territory. But it’s not nice when you’re not comfortable in your own skin to have your fat pinched and told you need to bring it down a bit. I can remember being really young and just not liking what I looked like.”
As her career progressed, Earps said the spotlight only intensified those pressures: “You’re in a room getting all these photos taken and you think ‘that was a horrible angle’. The way you look aesthetically and fuelling as an athlete are two conflicting ideals. That’s hard for anybody in the limelight.”
