Deliciously Ella has spoken of how vicious trolling made her retreat from public life.
Ella Mills, 32, the plant-based food blogger and product creator, found fame in 2013 with her blog, Deliciously Ella.
Since then, she has released seven cookbooks and launched 40 plant-based products, which are sold in all major UK retailers.
She also has millions of online followers - including 2.4million on Instagram alone.
Her empire is worth in the region of £60 million.
But speaking to The Times, the daughter of Sainsbury's heiress Camilla Sainsbury and former Northern Ireland secretary Shaun Woodward said she has received such vicious online hatred over the years that she retreated from public life until recently.
She said she was desperate to be “vanilla” and no longer be a public figure.
“Until quite recently I really, really retreated because I felt overwhelmed. I wanted to be essentially vanilla,” she told The Times.
The businesswoman said she found it easier to stay silent in the face of “personal” and “incredibly violating” attacks, with her social media page now focusing more on her food rather than her family and personal life.
"[Being silent] doesn’t feel good either but I found all the attacks a massive, massive adjustment. It was easier to be quiet," she said.
“We’re not talking someone saying, ‘That recipe wasn’t for me’ or ‘I don’t like your jeans’, it was much more personal than that, on steroids. It’s incredibly violating and you can only take so much of it.”
Mills has two daughters - Skye and May - with business partner and Deliciously Ella CEO Matthew Mills, the son of late politician Dame Tessa Jowell.
It is not the first time Mills has spoken about the trolling she suffers online.
Speaking about the release of her first book, Deliciously Ella, in 2015, to the Daily Mail, she said her increased profile was difficult to handle.
“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?'”
At the time, she also suggested she would like to follow in the footsteps of Jamie Oliver and become a food campaigner, helping people eat healthier.
“I know I can do the most good by working directly to change the way people eat,” she told You Magazine.
