Sophie Turner is crediting her new husband Joe Jonas with helping her through a difficult time in her life.
In a recent interview with the Sunday Times, the 23-year-old actress said that she was “going through this phase of being very mentally unwell” when she first met Jonas, 29.
“Having your adolescence being displayed in public, that’s something I really wish hadn’t happened,” Turner said of growing up on Game of Thrones. “Being in the age of social media when that’s happening, I think I would be a much saner person if I hadn’t been documented from 13 — your most awkward, uncomfortable, unsure-of-yourself years.”
Turner said that her body started to change over the many years of filming, and she eventually went to therapy after she started “calorie counting” and missing periods.
“Suddenly, everyone’s metabolism slows down at 17, 18 and then that’s documented,” she told the outlet. “My skin and everything. People commenting on it. I was too aware of my body at a young age. And it just kind of took over my mind, it was all I would think about. Calorie counting, everything. Oh, I’ll just eat nuts today.”
The Dark Phoenix star added, “I stopped having my period for a year — that’s when I decided to have therapy.”
Turner met Jonas at age 20 when she was “going through this phase of being very mentally unwell,” she recalled of that time in her life.
“He was, like, ‘I can’t be with you until you love yourself, I can’t see you love me more than you love yourself.’ That was something, him doing that,” she continued. “I think he kind of saved my life, in a way.”
The actress also revealed that the couple once broke up for a day.
“It was the worst day of our lives,” she told the Times. “For a second we both had cold feet, then 24 hours later we were both, like, ‘Never mind.’ “
Turner has previously been open about her struggles with mental health.
In an interview with Marie Claire Australia for their June issue, she said that she dealt with criticism from fans over her body, and had film and television studios telling her to lose weight. To deal with it, she turned to therapy.
“My metabolism suddenly decided to fall to the depths of the ocean and I started to get spotty and gain weight, and all of this was happening to me on camera,” Turner said.
“Everyone needs a therapist, especially when people are constantly telling you you’re not good enough and you don’t look good enough,” she continued. “I think it’s necessary to have someone to talk to, and to help you through that.”
Turner, who wed Jonas in a surprise Las Vegas ceremony earlier this month, also recently talked to Dr. Phil McGraw about her history of depression and the body-shaming comments.
“You see 10 great comments and you ignore them, but one negative comment and it just like, throws you off,” she said in April. “People used to write, ‘Damn, Sansa gained 10 lbs.,’ or ‘Sansa needs to lose 10 lbs.’ It was just a lot of weight comments. Or I would have spotty skin because I was a teenager and that’s normal, but I used to get a lot of comments about my skin and my weight and how I wasn’t a good actress.”
Therapy has helped, Turner said in the interview, along with her new husband.
“I feel much better. I’ve been doing therapy at CAST centers, actually. I’m on medication,” she said. “I love myself now, or more than I used to, I think. I don’t think I loved myself at all. But I’m now with someone that makes me realize that I do have some redeeming qualities, I suppose. When someone tells you they love you every day, it makes you really think about why that is and I think it makes you love yourself a bit more. So yeah, I love myself.”
The actress shared a similar sentiment in a March interview with Glamour U.K.
“A lot of [my happiness now] is to do with being with a person I’ve fallen in love with, who loves me more than he loves himself, and who wants to see me find my own happiness,” she said of Jonas.
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