Deliciously Ella says she retreated from public life as a result of 'overwhelming trolling' and she now 'wants to be vanilla'

Ella Mills, 32, revealed she stepped out of the public eye after being trolled READ MORE:  Simple, quick dishes from queen of healthy cooking ELLA MILLS

Food blogger Deliciously Ella has revealed she faced horrendous trolling and ‘retreated from public life’ after being attacked online.

Real name Ella Mills, 32, the clean eating pioneer – and daughter of Sainsbury’s heiress (Camilla Sainsbury) and a former Northern Ireland secretary (Shaun Woodward) – found fame for her blog while studying at St Andrew’s University in 2013.

But with fame, and seven cookbooks selling more than 1.5 million copies worldwide, scrutiny became higher.

‘Until quite recently I really, really retreated because I felt overwhelmed. I wanted to be essentially vanilla,’ Ella told The Times .

Real name Ella Mills, 32, the clean eating pioneer – and daughter of Sainsbury’s heiress (Camilla Sainsbury) and a former Northern Ireland secretary (Shaun Woodward) – found fame for her blog while studying at St Andrew’s University in 2013

She now focuses her content on family and friends. Pictured with her husband and daughters

Finding it easier to stay silent in the face of what she described as ‘personal’ and ‘incredibly violating’ attacks, Ella was at the same time unhappy about having lost her voice.

Her solution, it seems, has been to take herself out of the spotlight and focus more intensely on the food.

Her Instagram account now focuses on pictures of her cooking  tasty dishes lightly peppered with images of Ella cooking, exercising, posing with her husband or cuddling with her kids.

Her food empire is now valued at about £60 million.

Speaking in 2022, Ella said she would like to follow in Jamie Oliver’s footsteps and take up food advocacy.

‘I know I can do the most good working directly to change the way people eat,’ she told You Magazine.

Over the past decade, Ella’s empire has grown from a humble blog to a firm that sells a food product almost every two seconds – and her plans for the future underline a commendable determination to spread her message.

She said  the vicious trolling she endured after her first book, Deliciously Ella in 2015, almost forced her to quit her venture.

Speaking in 2022, Ella said she would like to follow in Jamie Oliver ‘s footsteps and take up food advocacy

‘We’d gone from something niche to people talking about you instead of to you,’ she said.

‘I was so young and out of my depth and confused. I didn’t know what I was doing … I definitely had moments from 2015 to 2017 when I thought, ‘Do I really want to do this?’ ‘

Ella said it was her online community that kept her going, adding: ‘When you hear from people who say this has changed their life, you think ‘Who cares about this random person I’ve never met who doesn’t like me?’ ‘

Her range has now grown to 40 vegan products – including her original cacao and almond energy balls – which are all sold across 6,000 UK stores.

Ella’s mother is the supermarket heiress Camilla Davan Sainsbury but she says there have never been any handouts from either set of parents.

‘My family haven’t worked in Sainsbury’s since before I was born,’ Ella said. ‘Ironically they were one of the last retailers to stock us.

Ella said if she does move into ‘food politics’, Ella may well turn for advice to her father, former Labour MP Shaun Woodward

But there is a spirit that comes from my great-great-great-grandpa, who started one of the biggest brands in the country.’

If she does move into ‘food politics’, Ella may well turn for advice to her father, former Labour MP Shaun Woodward.

Meanwhile, her husband Matthew Mills, the chief executive of Deliciously Ella, is also considering following in the family footsteps with a run for parliament.

Matthew is the son of late Cabinet Minister Dame Tessa Jowell and Ella said it was ‘definitely in the ether’ that he would one day stand as an MP.

The couple met through their parents in what Ella has dubbed ‘an arranged marriage’. The mother-of-two added: ‘The first two times we met it was business and not a date.

‘Eventually he asked me out to dinner and three days after that we moved in together.’