Little Mix star Perrie Edwards reveals she was hospitalised while on tour after suffering panic attack

The singer spoke about her experience on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast, revealing that she was asked by hospital staff if she had ever taken drug when she was suffering from the panic attack. Perrie, 31, said that she believed she was having a heart attack at the time.

She said; "My anxiety started when we as a band were in Las Vegas a few years ago when something happened. I'd been having panic attacks for a while. I thought I was dying, my heart hurt and I went to hospital and they were like 'what drugs have you taken' and I said 'nothing!'

“I told them 'something's happening to my heart I'm going to die' - and I was having a panic attack. Since that trip they just kept coming and it got so bad I had to ask my mum if she was going to put me in a mental institute."

Perrie, who has recently launched her solo career after Little Mix called it a day in 2022, also said that she has since regularly attended therapy, which “has helped me massively”. She added: “I tried so many therapists and doctors. I catastrophize normal daily life things but when I'm on stage I'm fine."

The ‘Forget About US’ singer added that she tried to keep her anxiety away from her three-year-old son Alex, whom she had with fiancé Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. She told the podcast: "I never want my little boy see that I am anxious. I'm scared people will see me out and about and recognise me and see me having a panic attack.

"But I feel better now after finding the right therapist. But you have to go through the thick of it first and feel it all."

During her time on the podcast, the X Factor winner also opened up about the death of ex-One Direction member Liam Payne, who died after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires earlier this month. Perrie, who was previously engaged to Payne’s former bandmate Zayn Malik, said: "I think it just feels weird, it’s just so sad.

“It’s so heartbreaking, and my heart honestly hurts for his family, his friends, Cheryl, his little boy. It’s just absolutely devastating, and I can’t even imagine how they must be feeling right now.

"I didn’t think it was real when I read it, and it’s a very weird space, and I think it’s in the air, everyone can feel it, it’s really sad. Us girls were messaging, and I think Leigh-Anne [Pinnock] was like, ‘it’s very close to home’, our careers were very aligned.

"We had a relationship with them and it’s honestly so sad, like it made my body feel weird when I saw the headlines, I was like that can’t be real. It shakes you up, it’s just blooming awful, and all of our hearts go out to his family. It’s an unthinkable thing to have to go through."