Ellie Goulding

Ellie Goulding gets candid about managing her past in the spotlight and the future ahead of her. She tells Richard Godwin all about being a mother and ...

At the same time, I can put myself on a train to Ukraine and I can put myself in scary situations. I get to play live in London for the first time in a couple of years and I'm really excited about it. She is trying to focus on the many positives – and she has noticed plenty since she became a mother. She is a thoughtful critic of social media, and the way so many of us feel the need to keep feeding the algorithm with fresh content about ourselves. I was made to feel like a terrible person and I really struggled with that because I know I'm not.' But surely, I suggest, she has at least reached a stage in her career where she doesn't have to do that if she doesn't want to? Then she turned around and realised, as in a dystopian sci-fi film, that everyone else on the boat was looking at the whales through their phones. And she is open now about the fact that it doesn't necessarily go away, even when your life is as rich as hers appears to be. People are going to be dancing to that.' It's hard not to be excited by that.' When we talk she is about to go on tour for the first time in years and can't wait. 'It's such a lonely and terrifying experience that I hate the thought of young people going through it by themselves,' she says. And as she tells Richard Godwin, playing with a toddler is the best way to beat her chronic anxiety Oh, and did I mention she has a toddler?