Zara McDermott announces break from ‘negative’ social media

Influencer and presenter said she has been prioritising other projects

Zara McDermott has said she has been taking a “step back” from social media after saying it “feels quite heavy” and “negative”.

In May, the 28-year-old appeared to go official with Louis Tomlinson after splitting from Sam Thompson, her boyfriend of five years.

Last week, Thompson appeared during a charity football match for Soccer Aid at which Tomlinson was also present. Footage appeared to show the One Direction singer snubbing the I’m a Celeb star at the event, according to MailOnline, fuelling speculation of a feud between the two.

On Friday night (20 June), McDermott wrote: “I also just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who messaged me with regards to the story I posted the other day. If you didn't see it; I spoke about developing my next documentary and how I've been thinking of how to create a project about domestic abuse, coercive control and tech abuse.”

McDermott’s new BBC project, To Catch a Stalker, sees the documentarian spend time with those affected by online stalking.

She continued: “I had thousands of message and I'm still going through them, but I wanted to say the biggest thank you ever. It’s so nice speaking to you all because I've definitely taken a bit of a step back from socials to focus on my documentaries and other work / just focusing on being more present recently.”

McDermott said social media has become a ‘negative space’ (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Explaining the reasons she had decided to take a break, the presenter and former Love Island contestant said: “Social media feels quite heavy and a negative space sometimes... so to be able to feel like we can work together to do something super positive is a great feeling.

Thank you again. forever grateful to all of you who continue to support the work i do. it really means SO much.”

In January this year, Thompson, who recently revealed he had been diagnosed with autism, spoke about his split from McDermott, calling it a “real tough month”.

A source attributed their alleged split to growing apart due to work commitments, telling MailOnline: “Zara and Sam’s relationship just never had felt like it was heading for the long haul.

“They were delaying the inevitable for several months as they had drifted apart and their lives had become very different.”