Evanna Lynch is best known for playing Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter film franchise and she has been open about her struggles with an eating disorder and her famous family
The latest addition to the magical Harry Potter franchise is a baking competition series, Harry Potter : Wizards of Baking, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The show is hosted by none other than the Weasley twins themselves, James and Oliver Phelps.
Throughout the series, contestants have the opportunity to meet various cast members from the Harry Potter films, including Evanna Lynch, who portrayed Luna Lovegood. The 33-year-old actress hails from County Louth, Ireland, and has been a fan of the wizarding world since she was just eight years old.
Evanna comes from a family with two older sisters and a younger brother. Her uncle, Declan Kiberd, is a renowned writer and scholar of Irish literature, while her second uncle, Damien Kiberd, is a respected Irish journalist and commentator, known as one of the founding members of The Sunday Business Post.
Damien has also recently worked as a presenter for news-discussion programmes on Newstalk and 4fm. Evanna attended Our Lady’s College in Drogheda, where her father served as the deputy principal.
While filming for Harry Potter, she received at least three hours of tutoring each day to keep up with her studies, reports the Express.
At the age of 11, Evanna battled an eating disorder and was hospitalised multiple times due to anorexia. She found solace in the Harry Potter books, even writing to author J. K. Rowling to express how the stories provided a much-needed distraction from her illness.
“I started writing to JK Rowling and she wrote back and we became pen friends after that,” she revealed on Dancing With the Stars. “I was in and out of hospital and I would be getting these letters.”
The star expressed how Rowling’s books and her personal kindness were pivotal in her recovery: “her books and her kindness really made me want to live again”.
In a twist of fate, during the release of ‘Order of the Phoenix’ in June 2003, while she was hospitalised, her family managed to arrange for her to leave for an hour to receive a signed copy of the book from the publisher and the hospital.
Her life took a magical turn in January 2006 when she attended an open casting call for Luna Lovegood and secured the role at just 14 years old.
“I love the feeling of creating and acting more than I love the feeling of being skinny or of being perfect,” she declared, adding that being part of Harry Potter was transformative:
“Being in Harry Potter changed my life because it proved to me that I could do something, that I had something to offer the world.”
Beyond the screen, she is celebrated for her activism and strong advocacy for veganism, as well as hosting The ChickPeeps podcast with fellow Harry Potter alum and former flame Robbie Jarvis.
The couple went public with their romance in 2015 but parted ways amicably in 2016. She later dated musician AnDel in 2017, though they have since separated.
As of 2021, she was romantically linked to a Frenchman she met in London.
Additionally, she hosts the Just Beings podcast, delving into positive and compassionate thinking.
Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking is available to watch on Prime Video
