Perrie Edwards has no sense of smell

3 July 2024

Perrie Edwards has no sense of smell.

Perrie Edwards has no sense of smell [ Dish/Waitrose/S:E Creative Studio]

The former Little Mix star never knew about her condition until her kitchen went on fire and she couldn't smell the smoke.

Speaking to Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett on the 'Dish from Waitrose' podcast, Perrie explained: "It's so weird. They did so many tests on me growing up, but the thing is, I didn't know I had no sense of smell. So I'd grow up and like me and my brother, at one point we shared a room, we had bunk beds, and he'd be like, ‘Oh, mum's making bacon butties,’ and I’d be like, ‘How do you know that?’ And like, he'd walk in and go, ‘Mum's making spag bol,’ and I'd think, wow, he's powerful. How does he know this information? It used to honestly-really confused me as a child, and I never thought oh he can smell it.

"And one time our house was on fire. I couldn't smell it. Yeah, our kitchen had set on fire. No, I saw the black smoke come under the door. And then I started coughing and then I was like, [gasps], ‘cause it takes your breath away. So then at that point my mum took me to the hospital. And they, no, they did tests on me, so I could taste everything. But I couldn't smell. So they were like, there must be a disconnect going from my nose to my brain or something. And I'm not, I'm not understanding the process, but I can taste everything, which is why I love food so much. Praise the Lord."

Perrie, 30, even had surgery to correct her condition but it only worked temporarily.

She said: "And I had surgery, came out, had big tampons in my nose, recovered for a while. And then I swear to God I could smell coffee. I woke up and smelled the coffee. That's what happened. I came round. And then after that, nothing again. And then they said to my mum, usually these procedures, you have to do them twice, and I was like, I'm not going through that again. I don't care. Like, if I had it and lost it, fair enough. But I've never had it, so why care?"

Dish from Waitrose is available on all podcast providers. To listen, go to https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dish/id1626354833