Jade Thirlwall Reveals Why Little Mix’s X-Factor Experience Was ‘Pretty F—ed Up,’ How It Exacerbated Mental Illness

• Jade Thirlwall has opened up about her challenging experience on X-Factor
• She detailed how the singing competition show was detrimental to her mental health
• Thirlwall thought the experience was very “f—ed up”

Jade Thirlwall is opening up about her grueling experience on X-Factor.

In an interview with The Independent published on Saturday, Jan. 4, the Little Mix alum detailed how the singing competition show was detrimental to her mental health — and she wasn’t alone in her experience.

“I don’t know anyone that’s come off that show and not had some sort of mental health issue on the back of it,” Thirlwall, 32, who launched her solo career in 2024, told the outlet.

She added, “But also, even now, personally I’m conflicted criticizing [it], because it changed my life.”

Thirlwall was 18 when she auditioned for the show as a soloist — and later found herself in a band with Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards and Jesy Nelson. Though the group found success outside of the show, Thirlwall thinks the experience was “pretty f—ed up.”

“Even at 18, I knew there were people who weren’t mentally well in there, keeping everyone up at night,” she said of her fellow conestants. “I don’t know if there was even security outside the house. It’s scary to think about now, but I was too young to realize that at the time.”

The final episode of the show, which kicked off in 2004 and ran for 15 seasons, aired on Dec. 2, 2018.

“I think it had to end. I don’t think that kind of show can exist any more. We’re in a different place now,” Thirlwall said of the show, which is also where One Direction was discovered. “We wouldn’t put someone that’s mentally unwell on a TV screen and laugh at them while they sing terribly. The concept of a joke act on a show is just cruel. It’s all very Roman empire.”

Though she credits the show for being “the best training ever for me to enter the music industry,” the singer-songwriter said “five percent of the people that went on there have come out of it not unscathed, but having survived.”

“The other 95 percent have suffered in silence,” she continued. “How do you go from being on that show to back to your nine-to-five? How do you get signed to the label, think you’ve made it, and then once your song doesn’t hit the Top 10, you’re just dropped? It’s so savage, this machine that we’re a part of. Even back then, we knew how lucky we were every day that we were still signed.”

Speaking to PEOPLE about her solo endeavors in December, Thirlwall — who auditioned for the show twice before making it on the third try — opened up about almost giving up.

“The final year I auditioned, I couldn’t be bothered because I was with a crappy boyfriend, and I was like, ‘Oh, I just want to hang out with him,'” she began. “I just didn’t know if it was realistic anymore. I was going to do an art degree for theater production and stuff. Then, my older brother was like, ‘Just go one more time. You never know what’s going to happen. You’ve got nothing to lose.’ I was like, ‘Fine.’ I went, and then I got put in Little Mix, so thank God.”

Over the summer, Thirlwall scored a top-10 hit in her native United Kingdom with her debut single “Angel of My Dreams.” She followed with “Midnight Cowboy” and “Fantasy,” which are set to appear on her highly anticipated solo album, out in 2025.

When asked about the kind of impact she hopes to make, Thirlwall opened up about her pop-stardom dreams.

“I want them to think of Jade and think, ‘F— me, that girl does everything. She gives us everything we could want and more.’ I strive to be an all-or-nothing kind of pop girly. I want the costumes, the choreo, the big choruses, the big visuals,” she told PEOPLE. “I am a relentlessly in-your-face visual pop artist. Whether you like that or not, that works for me. I’d love for people to acknowledge me as a credible artist that writes my music and actually stands for something, as well.”