Photo: Instagram
She lived on a diet of tapas and cocaine.
By Amy Lamare — Written on Jan 15, 2019
Model and social media influencer Ruby Tuesday Matthews is on a mission to shed some light on the so called "glamourous" world of Instagram models. She has reveled that she relied on a diet of black coffee, cocaine and tapas to stay as thin as she was pressured to by the companies that paid her to be a top influencer. When a fan asked her in a question and answer session how she maintained her extremely thin figure, she candidly responded, “I did a lot of cocaine, like a lot, so basically I just smoked cigarettes, had long blacks and did coke. And in between, had the tapas. Like my life was tapas and cocaine.” The 25-year-old Australian also claimed drug use was rampant in the social media industry, saying that most influencers took cocaine to maintain their weight. Who is Ruby Matthews?
1. The influencer industry
Ruby Matthews said that the influencer industry pushes women to diet to maintain an extremely thin body. Dietician Marissa Meshulam told Yahoo Lifestyle how dangerous this is, saying, “The role influencers play in affecting their followers’ diet and lifestyle decisions is really scary. People look at influencers as ‘goals’ in so many ways. Followers then try everything to replicate their influencers’ lifestyles, thinking that they too can achieve these goals.'” Needlesss to say, the emphasis should be on health, not weight.
2. An addiction
During the Q&A with Ruby Matthews, she acknowledged that a lot of people didn't understand how she could eat and still be so thin. She said, "I guess it's pretty easy to hide an addiction. People don't realise how easy it is to hide something. Whether it's addiction, depression, anxiety, it's easy to hide those things."
3. How she stopped
The truth is that Ruby, who lives in Byron Bay, Australia, didn't think she could get pregnant while doing so much cocaine and eating so little. But she did! The now mother of two stopped her unhealthy habits and addictions as soon as she found out she was pregnant with her first child. When she found out she was pregnant, she had last done cocaine just three days before. She immediately became concerned her big night out might have hurt her unborn baby in some way. "I was so thin and I was partying a lot and no one thought I would be able to fall pregnant," she said.
4. She weighs 20lbs more now
Matthews weighs 20 lbs more now that she did at the height of her Instagram model days. In a recent Insta post, she said, "What a difference 4 and a bit years make. I was pretty tiny here, I actually have no desire to look like that ever again. The modeling industry is a tuff industry with the expectation of you having to look a certain way. Slowly I see small changes but I think it’s crazy we even use the word “plus size model” like what the actual f*ck! Can’t we just have models of all shapes and sizes ? Thank you for all the love and support over the last 24 hours."
5. Her followers appreciate it
Matthews's followers appreciated her candor when it came to her former unhealthy lifestyle habits. They called it "real," "honest" and a "breath of fresh air" in an industry where everyone is always trying to appear perfect, even when that is an unattainable thing for almost everyone.
Amy Lamare is a Los Angeles based freelance writer covering entertainment, pop culture, beauty, fashion, fitness, technology, and the intersection of technology, business, and philanthropy. She is deeply devoted to her chocolate Labrador and an avid long distance runner. You can find her on Instagram and Facebook.