Stars Who’ve Battled Eating Disorders: Taylor Swift, Laurie Hernandez and More

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Stars Who've Battled Eating Disorders: Taylor Swift, Laurie Hernandez and More

Sharing their stories. Taylor Swift, Laurie Hernandez and more celebrities have opened up about struggling with their body image and battling eating disorders. In her Netflix documentary, Miss Americana, the Grammy winner revealed that seeing "pictures of myself every day" could send her into a spiral. "A picture of me where I feel like I looked like my tummy was too big, or ... someone said that I looked pregnant ... and that'll just trigger me to just starve a little bit — just stop eating," she said in the film. Swift later went into more detail during a candid conversation with Variety in January 2020. "I didn't know if I was going to feel comfortable with talking about body image and talking about the stuff I've gone through in terms of how unhealthy that's been for me — my relationship with food and all that over the years," she told the outlet, admitting that she's "not as articulate as I should be about this topic." The "Cardigan" singer recalled being told during photo shoots that stylists were excited to not have to make alterations to sample-size clothing. "I looked at that as a pat on the head," she continued. "You register that enough times, and you just start to accommodate everything towards praise and punishment, including your own body." [jwplayer b0G8WjT7-zhNYySv2] While she was initially wary about sharing her journey with the world, director Lana Wilson called it "one of [her] favorite sequences of the film" and praised the Cats star's vulnerability. "I think it's really brave to see someone who is a role model for so many girls and women be really honest about that," the filmmaker told Variety. "I think it will have a huge impact." Hernandez, for her part, faced an intense amount of pressure to perform at the highest level as an Olympic gymnast. She told Us Weekly exclusively in June 2021 that her habits were "obsessive and unhealthy" — but she didn't realize it right away. "Honestly, it was a really long up and down journey of understanding food and understanding how I saw food and how my body received food," the Dancing With the Stars alum explained at the time. "There was a lot of learning and a lot of patience and grace involved. ... Now I don't count or track calories. I'm just kind of eating clean, because I also know that food is a fuel and for what I do and it is important to eat healthy." Scroll down to which celebs have bravely overcome their struggles. If you or someone you know struggles with an eating disorder, visit the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa & Associated Disorders (ANAD) website or call their hotline at (888)-375-7767 to get help. [podcast_block]

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Melanie Lynskey

Lynskey revealed she had “eating issues from the age of 12,” noting her mother “has a lot of issues around food and was anorexic for a lot of my growing up.”

“Well, I met a boyfriend, Andrew Howard, who helped me so much with my eating disorder on the set of The Cherry Orchard,” the actress recalled to Vulture in May 2022. “The closest thing I’ve had to an intervention was when I was living with him, and he got really intense about my eating issues. He tried to stop me from monitoring my own eating and talked to me about how thin I was. Of course, in my mind, I thought he was nuts. I’d never had anybody care that much. I’d never had anybody be like, ‘This is really painful.’ The people I had confided in were usually people who also had eating issues, so it would become about swapping tips.”

She noted Howard’s input “changed” her life.

“I stopped throwing up, mostly. It took a while. But that was a big one. I had, for a very long time, been on this diet that was basically 800 calories a day, and if I ate anything over 800 calories, I would throw up,” she said. “I was never bingey. Sometimes I’d be starving, and I’d have another teacup of Special K. Then I’d be like, ‘Well, now I gotta throw it up.’”

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Jackie Goldschneider

"Tonight’s episode marked the beginning of my recovery from an 18 year-long eating disorder that took over my mind, my body and my life. 18 years of dangerous habits, secretive behaviors and obsessive eating and exercise patterns that I was terrified to let go of, because I wrapped so much of my identity around being thin," the Real Housewives of New Jersey star wrote in a lengthy Instagram statement in March 2022.

Goldschneider noted that she felt "ashamed" of her behavior around food while struggling to vocalize her struggle. "In my darkest days, I desperately wanted to see someone who had suffered like I suffered, and who had successfly [SIC] recovered and lived a happy life. When I ultimately decided to acknowledge and recover from this, I wanted to be that person for as many other people as I could," she added.

The former lawyer continued: "Having these conversations on camera was terrifying at times and heartbreaking to watch back, but I am so thankful that I’m finally on this road and I’m grateful to Bravo for allowing me to break my silence so publicly, so that people know there is no shame in having an eating disorder or in asking for help, and that help is available for anyone at any stage of life."

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Chloe Cherry

“It all started when this agent that I had when I was [in] porn said to my face that I was fat,” the actress, who plays Faye on HBO’s Euphoria, said during a March 2022 appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “He said, ‘Everyone says that you’re fat and the fastest way to lose weight is by not eating.’ He said that to me and I was like, ‘What the f–k.’ It just turned into an eating disorder ‘cause I was so young at the time. He said that to me when I was 18, and it was so f–king freaky because no one in my whole life had ever said that I was fat and then it just became an obsession.”

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Tom Daley

The Olympian opened up about his struggle in October 2021. “I used to make myself throw up, in 2012,” he told The Guardian at the time. “I weigh myself every day. I’ve had a very strange relationship with food and my body image. I guess it is a mild form of [an eating disorder]. Men always seem to not have eating disorders and it’s hard to talk about it. But I would consider myself to be someone that has very much struggled with body image, and eating, and feeling guilty and shameful of the things that I eat.”

Daley added that his body image issues “came from within my sport,” claiming, “It was hammered into me that I was overweight and needed to lose weight in order to perform.”

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Chloe Lukasiak

The Dance Moms alum opened up about her journey with multiple eating disorders in a September 2021 YouTube video, telling her fans she's "in a happy place" after consulting help from therapists.

"When I was on the show, I was dancing pretty much every day except for Sundays, so I was burning so many calories and I was just pretty fit and I was able to eat whatever I wanted because I was working out every day," Lukasiak, who performed with the Abby Lee Dance Company until 2014, said. "So there were no limits to what I could eat because I knew I would burn it off later. ... It only clicked in the past few months that my body doesn't actually look like what I think it looks like — which is crazy it took this long to kind of kick in."

The former reality star struggled with bulimia, body dysmorphia and anorexia. "I think it's a really important topic and one that not a lot of people discuss," she added. "It's kind of taboo and brushed under the rug. And I just want to start the discussion because I think it's really important to kind of bring light to it. ... I'm in a beautiful place. I'm in a happy place. I'm in a safe place."

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Jordana Brewster

The Fast & Furious star revealed her binge-eating habit turned into anorexia in a June 2021 essay.

"The cliché that controlling your food gives you the illusion of control of your life is true. But it also does something else: A fixation with your body gives you tunnel vision," she wrote in an essay for Glamour. "I was so focused on the number on the scale and the number of calories I consumed in a day that I ignored all other problems. I didn’t look closely at my career, my marriage. Years of therapy helped me through my control and eating issues, and now I’m lucky to be at a level of peace with my body. If body issues do come up, I deal with them head-on."

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Laurie Hernandez

The Olympian told Us Weekly exclusively in June 2021 that she had to break away from her disordered eating.

“It just got a little bit obsessive and unhealthy, and now I don’t count or track calories. I’m just kind of eating clean, because I also know that food is a fuel and for what I do and it is important to eat healthy,” she said. “Last night I had fish and vegetables and there was this giant pile of veggies on the plate. If I were calorie tracking it, I might say, ‘Oh, this is a lot of carbs.’ But my body was craving vegetables. So, why not give it? Whenever I get to be intuitive and listen to my body, it’s what makes me feel good.”

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Gabourey Sidibe

The Empire actress revealed in a January 2021 interview on Taraji P. Henson's talk show, Peace of Mind With Taraji, that she battled with bulimia for years before undergoing bariatric surgery in 2016 and losing 150 pounds.

"It was about me surviving the day. It was about controlling this emotion that was uncontrollable. I hated this emotion so much, I hated it," she said of her struggle with depression, which triggered her eating issues when she was in college. "I found a button, and on top of that people were like, 'You're looking good.' You know? So why would I stop? It's like, this was dope, in a way. It was like a self-defense mechanism, that's what bulimia was for me. It wasn't about losing weight, it wasn't about controlling my appetite, it truly was about how it stopped me from crying."

But while she thought she was in control of her emotions, the Precious star was "getting worse."

"Being depressed is one thing, but if you add an eating disorder to that, that's a whole other monster that you have to fight," she said.

Sidibe previously opened up about her mental health and eating disorder in her 2017 memoir, This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare.

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Sadie Robertson

The Duck Dynasty alum opened up in September 2020 about her past struggles with an eating disorder, which first started after her time on Dancing With the Stars in 2014. “I had this body that I never thought I'd have. I had a six-pack for two weeks, but then Thanksgiving hit and it went away. People started to comment,” she told Entertainment Tonight about her post-DWTS body.

Robertson, who was 17 years old when she competed on the ABC series, revealed there were a lot of “negative influences” in her life that fed into her insecurities. Those body image issues were fueled even more by her modeling career. "People would say things like, 'Oh, if you lost 10 more pounds, you would look like a real model,'" she recalled. "I was literally 115 pounds and already unhealthy. That just messed my mind up."

The reality star’s “really unhealthy view” of herself continued to grow, leading to her counting calories and judging her shape constantly. "I would look at myself in the mirror and I would think, 'I'm fat,' and I was not at all,” she said. Eventually she turned to God and started to thank him for all of the good parts of her body, and over time, her thoughts about beauty changed.

“What really helped me is understanding that it’s not actually about being the most beautiful person in the world,” the “WHOA That’s Good” podcast host added. “It’s about the beauty that radiates inside of you and off of you and how that can actually captivate the attention of somebody who loves you."

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Charli D'Amelio

The TikTok star revealed in September 2020 that she has an eating disorder. “I’ve always tried to use my voice when it comes to issues surrounding body image, but I’ve never talked about my own struggles with eating disorders,” she wrote on her Instagram Stories. “It’s so uncomfortable to admit to even your closest friends and family, let alone the world. i’ve been afraid to share that I have an eating disorder, but ultimately i hope that by sharing this i can help someone else.”

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Ireland Baldwin

In August 2020, the model celebrated six years of being free of her eating disorder. “Wanted to announce that today is the 15th of August, and today marks six years that I have been free of anorexia and bulimia and all of my other food compulsion and eating disorders that I have struggled through for many years,” she said in an Instagram video. “And today marks six years. So, you can do it.”

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Shawn Johnson

The Olympic gold medalist spoke about her past eating disorder during a June 2020 YouTube video. Johnson revealed she only consumed 700 calories while she was training for the 2008 Olympics, which led to “self-confidence and self-image issues” once she wasn’t competing. "In my mind, everybody praised me for what I did at the Olympics,” she said in the video. “They praised who I was as a human being when I was there. In my mind, if I could look like that, not necessarily compete or do gymnastics, but if I could be that person again, then the world would say that I was enough and I was accepted, which didn't make any sense." After gaining weight following her departure from the sport, Johnson said she turned to Adderall and dieting to try and stay thin. She eventually left gymnastics for good ahead of the 2012 Olympics and started seeing a therapist and nutritionist, calling it her “turning point.”

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Laura Prepon

The Orange Is the New Black alum opened up about her struggle with bulimia in her motherhood guide, You & I, as Mothers: A Raw and Honest Guide to Motherhood in 2020. The actress revealed that her mother “taught” her bulimia after she was told to lose 25 pounds at age 15 during a model casting call. Her struggle with the disorder lasted until her late 20s and was “a bonding thing” she did with her mom, calling it a “shared secret.” Prepon eventually weighed 105 pounds and explained that weight loss became a “compulsion that would completely debilitate” her.

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Taylor Swift

The "Lover" singer revealed she has struggled with eating disorders and body image over the years in her 2020 Netflix documentary, Miss Americana. “It’s not good for me to see pictures of myself every day,” she said in a voiceover. “It’s only happened a few times, and I’m not in any way proud of it, [but in the past I’ve seen] a picture of me where I feel like I looked like my tummy was too big or … someone said that I looked pregnant … and that’ll just trigger me to just starve a little bit — just stop eating.”

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Mary-Kate Olsen

The former child star sought treatment for anorexia nervosa at Cirque Lodge in 2004. "This is a challenge that Mary-Kate has made a decision to face," her rep said at the time. "This is a challenge she will meet."

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Demi Lovato

"I was compulsively overeating when I was eight years old. So, I guess, for the past 10 years, I've had a really unhealthy relationship with food," Lovato told 20/20 in 2011. She sought treatment in late 2010 for bulimia.

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Kelly Clarkson

In 2007, Clarkson admitted to struggling with bulimia after a skinnier, less talented singer stole her part in a high school musical. "I thought if I came back and I was cuter and thinner, then I'd get the role," she told CosmoGirl. "It wasn't smart. . .and I became bulimic for the next six months."

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Stephanie Pratt

In 2009, The Hills star told Us how she began bingeing and purging after watching a scene she shot with Lauren Conrad in 2007: "I was horrified. I remember saying, 'I can't believe how huge I look walking over to Lauren.'"

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Bethenny Frankel

"I spent my entire life being obsessed with dieting," the Bravo reality star told Us in 2011. "Bingeing and then fasting or starving. Forbidding everything. That's how I used to be: up and down 5 pounds every single day, to the extremes. My metabolism was totally wrecked."

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Portia De Rossi

In her 2010 memoir, Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain, the actress revealed that she once put herself on a 300-calorie-per-day diet that led her to weigh a mere 82 pounds. "It wasn't that I was proud of it, but it was certainly a recognition for my self-control," she said.

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Lily Allen

"I used to vomit after meals. It's not something I'm proud of," the British singer said in the 2010 documentary Riches to Rags. "A lot of people came up to me telling me how great I looked and I'd be on the cover of every magazine. . .But I wasn't happy."

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Sharon Osbourne

She may have survived a battle with cancer, but The Talk co-host admits she's still fighting her eating disorder. "I've been able to conquer just about everything except bulimia," she has said.

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Snooki

"In high school, I really wouldn't eat," the Jersey Shore star said in 2010. "It got so crazy that I would only eat a cracker or a cucumber a day and I would feel full." After her school nurse and her parents intervened, the 4'9" MTV star "gained my weight back to like 98, where I always was."

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Wynonna Judd

In January 2006, the country singer checked into treatment to confront her eating disorder. "Food to me is what alcohol is to an alcoholic, and the struggle is up and down," Judd told Larry King. "I had been using food for every emotion I had. . .and it became too much, so I did something about it."

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Geri Halliwell

The Spice Girl has been open about her struggles with bulimia. "It's not really about food or the body shape," she explained in 2003. "It's just a way of dealing or coping with life. . .I really feel that what's helped me is talking about it with other people who share the same addiction."

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Candace Cameron Bure

In her 2010 memoir, Reshaping It All, Cameron Bure revealed that she began binging and purging after Full House ended its run in 1995 and she moved to Canada with her new husband, NHL player Valeri Bure.

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Jamie-Lynn Sigler

In 2005, the Sopranos star came forward about her battle with exercise bulimia. "Knowing that I was able to overcome it and be healthy and happy again is amazing," she told CNN. Sigler now serves as a spokeswoman for the National Eating Disorders Association.

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Thandie Newton

"I had terrible bulimia for about a year," the actress told Easy Living in 2007. "I've still got the scars on my knuckles from where I put my fingers down my throat." Now when she looks in the mirror, Newton says she sees a "happy, defiant, loving friend."

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Justine Bateman

"I realized I was an anorexic, a bulimic, and a compulsive overeater," the Family Ties actress told Entertainment Weekly in 1996. She checked into a 12-step program, which led to another calling. "I needed a concept of God that worked for me, and I wound up giving my life to Jesus Christ."