Woodward was born on 31 May 1991 in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, the daughter of the politician Shaun Woodward and his wife Camilla, daughter of politician Tim Sainsbury and granddaughter of Lord Sainsbury, of the Sainsbury’s supermarket owning family.

Woodward writes about food in a blog she founded in 2012 named Deliciously Ella which was also the title of her first book, published in 2015. Her second book, Deliciously Ella Every Day was released in January 2016. A third book, Deliciously Ella With Friends was released in January 2017. She was an advocate of clean eating but turned against it after a media backlash that questioned its health benefits. Her clean eating series of books was called by The Guardian “arguably the most successful fad diet cookbook series in recent years”.

After attending Rugby School, she graduated with a degree in history of art from the University of St Andrews in 2013.

In 2015, Ella and her business partner, Matthew Mills, opened The MaE Deli, Seymour Place, Marylebone. In 2016 they opened their second site, The MaE Deli, Weighhouse Street, Mayfair. In early 2017, a third site was launched named The Kitchen Counter, in Herne Hill, as an extension to their development kitchen. In March 2018, after less than a year, the Herne Hill site was closed down, as was the Marylebone deli, due to debts accruing of £720,000.

In April 2016 she married Tessa Jowell’s son, Matthew Mills, who is also her business partner. The couple have two daughters, Skye, who was born in July 2019 and May, born in October 2020.