AUCKLAND –
Lorde, the New Zealand recording artist, has disclosed a diagnosis of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and a period of recovery from an eating disorder during the production of her latest album, Virgin.
The disclosure, delivered in a long-form letter to fans, accompanies the release of a collection of demo and skeleton versions of album tracks on the streaming platform untitled.stream. The publication comes nearly one year after the initial release of Virgin, which marked her first studio album since 2021 and has been widely read as a candid document of her mid-20s.
The transparency regarding these health challenges highlights the physiological and psychological pressures inherent in the recording and promotion cycles of global music artists, and underscores the growing expectation that major labels and management companies reflect contemporary mental-health and workplace standards set out in instruments such as the International Labour Organization’s core conventions.
Health Disclosures and Medical Diagnosis
In her letter, the singer detailed her recovery from what she described as a “brief but long gestating” eating disorder. She noted that during the recording process, she worked on her relationship with food and deleted the calorie-tracking application MyFitnessPal.
“The week we started what would become Shapeshifter and What Was That I was working on believing that breakfast wasn’t a negotiation. I made myself drink a smoothie every morning, went to work when I wanted to run away, kept trying, one foot in front of the other.”
Additionally, the artist revealed a diagnosis of PMDD, a severe form of premenstrual syndrome characterized by significant mood disturbances that can interfere with daily functioning. The diagnosis followed observations from a friend who noticed the artist falling into intense depression coinciding with her menstrual cycle.
In a postscript, the singer stated she had researched burnout symptoms and is currently taking a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), a class of antidepressant medication regulated in most markets under national medicines and pharmacovigilance frameworks.
Lorde’s decision to make these disclosures in her own words, rather than via a management statement, aligns with a broader shift in how public figures communicate health information, balancing privacy with the public interest in honest discussion of mental health and reproductive health.
Archival Content and Production Process
The release of the demo tracks on untitled.stream is intended to serve as a non-traditional behind-the-scenes collection, rather than a conventional deluxe reissue. The artist stated that the archival release was meant to be “realer, funnier, more revealing of crookedness and slant” than standard promotional materials that typically surface late in an album cycle.
Rather than focusing on the polished final product, she described the collection as “celebratory of the way of travelling, the repetitions, the journey” – a rare invitation into the iterative process usually concealed by major-label release strategies.
Regarding the emotional toll of the project, she wrote that the creation of Virgin felt like “a total gift” and an act of self-liberation. She added, “I had the sense that I was setting myself free, building a holy site,” and noted that she “concentrated on singing to myself the way I needed to be sung to.”
The artist also acknowledged the difficulty of speaking publicly about the project following its launch, describing the experience as “raw and exposing in a new way.” Her comments land at a time when touring, promotional demands and online scrutiny are under renewed examination by industry bodies and governments reviewing working conditions in the cultural and creative sectors.
Cover Art and Visual Documentation
The imagery for the album cover consists of X-ray images captured at a medical facility on March 2, 2024. The artist noted she was wearing jewelry from both of her grandmothers during the session, framing the shoot as both clinical and deeply personal.
The singer described her mental state during the shoot as “insane, off the map,” stating that she feared the X-ray machine would “reveal an ugliness and wrongness that went all the way to the bone.”
The shoot was conducted by photographer Eric Wrenn. According to the letter, Wrenn assisted in easing her anxiety, telling her, “it will be perfect, it’s a picture of you, any way you are today is perfect and right.”
The highly medicalized aesthetic of the cover, combined with her disclosures about PMDD, burnout and disordered eating, places Virgin squarely inside a contemporary wave of pop albums that use diagnostic language and hospital imagery to interrogate health systems, treatment pathways and how bodies-particularly women’s bodies-are scrutinised.
The demo and skeleton tracks are currently available via the untitled.stream platform, alongside the studio version of Virgin. For readers seeking broader context on media and mental health, guidance from bodies such as the World Health Organization’s mental health frameworks continues to shape how institutions, employers and the creative industries respond to disclosures like Lorde’s.
