SINGER ELLIE
WHILE some of the world’s pop stars put on gigs at home to entertain us in lockdown, there’s one big name who won’t be joining them.
Ellie Goulding says she simply hasn’t the confidence to follow the likes of Robbie Williams and Miley Cyrus posting videos singing in their lounges.
Despite three No1s and two Brit Awards, Ellie, 33 – who even sang at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – confesses she still has insecurities about her voice.
Just as she had about her nose, her hair and her body as an anxious teenager playing guitar in her bedroom.
Self-isolating at home with her new husband, the Starry Eyed singer says: “I have a really unusual voice so you either love it or hate it.
“I think I need to get to a point where I’m comfortable posting videos singing – but I overthink it.”
As well as her musical accolades, Ellie has been named Woman of the Year by magazines and starred in modelling campaigns and shampoo adverts in defiance of her insecurities.
“I thought I had a big nose and my hair was really weird or that I didn’t have a great figure,” she says.
“That’s why talking and being frank and open about it is really important because every single one of us – even my husband – has our own insecurities.”
And she says it’s husband Caspar Jopling who helps keep her grounded.
After a string of failed relationships, Ellie married art dealer Caspar Jopling, 28, last August in a star-studded wedding attended by pals Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Joe Wicks and Jimmy Carr as well as Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice and their mum Sarah Ferguson.
FUN
Now holed up in their Oxfordshire home, Ellie’s loving married life with Caspar, who’s studying for a Masters in Business Administration at Oxford.
“Marriage is fun. I’d definitely recommend it. If you find someone you are going to be with for life, then get married,” she says. “The wedding was so much fun. It feels like so long ago.”
She reveals they’ve even been enjoying lockdown in a way. “Caspar has been studying real hard. He’s a rower too and was training for a big boat race, but that got cancelled. And I was kind of on the road a bit, so actually it’s been really fun.
“There’s a really beautiful community of people here, helping each other out – it’s the sweetest place. One of the nicest things about this time is so many people have come together and people do want to help others. It’s lovely.”
Her new country life is a world away from the council estate she grew up on in Lyonshall, Herefordshire.
Ellie shared a room with her halfsisters Isabel and Jordan, both from her mum’s second marriage. She also has a brother, Alex.
Her dad left home when she was five and Ellie admits she hated her stepfather. She says: “I felt different to everyone else. I’d separate everything. I’d have friends from my council estate and then these middleclass friends from school who I’d never let come back to my house. I was a classic angsty teenager. Unhappy. My stepfather wasn’t very nice to any of us. He wasn’t horrible – he just wasn’t interested.” Ellie – who admits to having a lot of therapy for anger issues – spent her time writing songs, playing guitar and perfecting the talents that have made her one of the most successful female artists in the
world. She says: