Caroline Calloway interview: ‘It was really painful to see my mental illness erased from the record. It helped to paint me as a villain’

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. In her essay, Beach refers to this period as Calloway having “fallen out of the public eye” but does not discuss her recovery, nor does she refer to Calloway’s poor mental health. The only time the word “addiction” appears in Beach’s essay is in reference to what Calloway told a fact-checker with regards to feeling suicidal because she could not get herself off amphetamines and had sold a memoir she couldn’t write. “Mental illness and depression are the reason why I no longer have a father,” Calloway says, adding that this made Beach’s portrayal of her all the more hurtful. “I can see how the colluding narrative would work for me but the idea that Natalie is doing that as well, it’s just not who she is and it’s not her personality.” Calloway was in fact quite famous before Beach’s essay came out, but probably not for the reasons she hoped.