Mental illness is real, it is serious, and it comes in many forms, including in the form of eating disorders. If there is stigma surrounding mental health struggles, such as depression and anxiety, though, eating disorders are a whole other animal. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, eating disorders affect at least 9% of the population worldwide, and the same percentage of Americans will have an eating disorder in their lifetimes. That means, not only has someone you know likely suffered from an eating disorder, but many of the "perfect" celebrities we all admire have, too.
But just like with any other mental illness, awareness is so incredibly important. The more people speak about what they are going through and what they have overcome, the more destigmatized eating disorders will become — and that can encourage people to reach out and seek the help they need.
That's one of the reasons we admire and appreciate the many celebrity moms who have bravely opened up about struggling with eating disorders at different times throughout their lives. Recently, Lady Gaga praised Taylor Swift for being candid about her own eating disorder struggles, and that's just one example of all of the times stars have opened up about this topic, even when it's not easy.
Just one celeb telling their story can make a huge difference to someone battling their own illness and feeling hopeless and unsure. So here, we're sharing not one emotional story, but many.
Taylor Swift
In her 2020 Netflix documentary, Miss Americana, Taylor Swift revealed that earlier in her career, she'd been exercising a lot but not eating, stuck in the cycle of the "standard of beauty you're not meeting." At the same time, she noted that she was happier at a higher weight.
"I don't care as much if somebody points out that I have gained weight — it's just something that makes my life better," Taylor said. "The fact that I'm a size 6 instead of a size 00, that wasn't how my body was supposed to be, I just didn't really understand that at the time, I don't really think I knew it."
The clip recently went viral on TikTok, which prompted fellow superstar Lady Gaga to share how much it touched her. She commented on the post: "That's really brave, everything you said. Wow."
Jane Fonda
During an episode of The Checkup With Dr. David Agus in December 2022, Jane Fonda admitted that recovering from anorexia and bulimia in the '50s and '60s was tough, but she decided to stop her unhealthy habits on her own when she realized that her "life was worth improving."
"I was married, I had children, I was politically active, I was raising money, I was an actor, I was making movies," she said. "I couldn't do it all because the older you get, the more toll it takes on you. If you binge and purge, it's like three or four days to really recover. And I just couldn't do the lifestyle that I wanted to do."
Jinger Duggar
Though she'd opened up about it previously, former Counting On star Jinger Duggar discussed the eating disorder she battled in her teen years in more detail in her 2023 memoir, Becoming Free Indeed.
"Back then, I was worried about what people thought of me," she wrote. "I avoided food because I wanted to appear thin. My concerns with fasting were because I was worried about what God thought of me. My previous struggles with food didn't cross my mind when I tried to figure out if I should fast or not, but it did cross my parents' minds. For that reason, they encouraged me to eat. In fact, my parents directly told me not to fast at that time."
Jennette McCurdy
Jennette McCurdy spoke at length about her eating disorder in her 2022 book, I'm Glad My Mom Died, revealing that her mom introduced her to calorie restriction at 11 years old so she'd look younger for longer in an effort to help her acting career. And as she shared on Red Table Talk, this led to some confusing feelings when she played Sam on iCarly, a character who was obsessed with food.
"It was so confusing at the time. Being caught up in anorexia or binge-eating disorder or bulimia and then, while playing this character who's slinging a fried chicken leg and beating people with a ham sandwich," she said. "It felt like my life was mocking me in a lot of ways, and it was really difficult."
Jonathan Van Ness
In October 2022, Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness took to Instagram to reveal that in April, he'd finally gotten help with an eating disorder he'd secretly been battling, pushed by wanting to be the best he could at gymnastics.
"It's been so interesting because I now prioritize making time to eat, planning to eat, and actually eating," he wrote. "It used to be my lowest priority, which would make me so hungry that when I would eat, I would binge. This has been and continues to be a healing journey I'm grateful to be on. I was nervous to talk about it but I feel it's important to share. We are not alone, and it's good to ask for help when you need it."
Candace Cameron Bure
Former Full House actress Candace Cameron Bure revealed in 2016 that she once suffered from bulimia.
"I really had kind of lost that sense of who I was because I placed so much value in myself as not only a friend and a daughter, but as an actress having worked for so many years," Candace explained to Self, revealing that she started bingeing and purging when she moved to Montreal with her husband and lost her identity as an actress.
Hilary Duff
Actress Hilary Duff has spoken on various occasions about the fact that she struggled with an eating disorder while starring in the Disney show Lizzie McGuire as a teenager.
"Oh my God, everyone was so hard on me because it took me a year and a half to get my body back," Hilary confessed after she gave birth in 2012. "When I was 17, I weighed like 98 pounds. I was totally obsessed with everything I put in my mouth. I was way too skinny. Not cute. And my body wasn't that healthy — my hands would cramp up a lot because I wasn't getting the nutrition I needed. That constant pressure of wanting something different than I had? I regret that."
Jessica Alba
At the 2019 "In Good Health" wellness summit, businesswoman and actress Jessica Alba revealed that early in her career she stopped eating in an attempt to minimize her curves to help her avoid unwanted attention from men.
"I stopped eating a lot when I became an actress," she said. "I made myself look more like a boy so I wouldn't get as much attention."
Tess Holliday
In May 2021, plus-size model and body positive activist Tess Holliday admitted to being anorexic in a series of tweets. She wrote: "I'm anorexic and in recovery. I'm not ashamed to say it out loud anymore." She later switched to Instagram to explain, "Yes, I've lost weight — I'm healing from an eating disorder and feeding my body regularly for the first time in my entire life."
Katharine McPhee Foster
Singer and Broadway star Katharine McPhee Foster, who became a mom for the first time in 2021, has been open about the fact that she struggled with bulimia for years before she was a contestant on American Idol. Just after giving birth to her son, she admitted that a big fear during her pregnancy was relapsing as she grappled with her changing body.
Shawn Johnson East
In 2020, Olympic gymnast and mom Shawn Johnson East confessed that while she was at the height of her athletic career and training for the 2008 Olympics, she was battling an eating disorder and consuming a mere 700 calories per day. "I would pass out during practice or after practice," she said at the time. "My body would cramp. I didn't have energy. I was unable to have a period. I wasn't maturing."
Molly Sims
Model and actress Molly Sims opened up about struggling with disordered eating long ago, admitting that when she was working as a bikini model in the 1990s, she essentially starved herself. "I didn't eat sometimes for a couple of days," she said in 2015, also admitting to overexercising. "And I used to walk 14 miles a day."
Kate Winslet
Although beloved British actress Kate Winslet has never admitted to having anorexia or bulimia, she has talked publicly about a period in her life when she was taking laxatives excessively in order to shed some pounds. She even said that at one point, she was "addicted to losing weight."
Alanis Morissette
In 2015, musician and mom of three Alanis Morissette opened up about a serious battle with both anorexia and bulimia, comparing it to a drug or alcohol addiction. "With heroin, you just don't go near it," she said at the time. "Whereas with food, you have to eat, so how can one go from, in my case, bingeing and purging, starving, overeating, the scale going up and down — how can I go from that to a 'sober' approach?"
Hilaria Baldwin
Influencer and mom of seven Hilaria Baldwin, who is married to actor Alec Baldwin, discussed a decades-long battle with eating disorders in her 2016 memoir, The Living Clearly Method. "By the time I was 20, my 5-foot-3 frame was at least 20 pounds under a healthy weight," she wrote in the book, going on to detail how unhealthy she was.
Alexa PenaVega
Known mostly as a child star, Spy Kids actress Alexa PenaVega has been open about struggling with an eating disorder when she was younger. When she was pregnant with her first child in 2016, she said that she had trouble conceiving and always wondered whether it was because of the eating disorder. "It was a big part of my life, and I was worried that I wasn't getting pregnant because of some long-term damage from what I'd put my body through," she recalled.
Princess Diana
Princess Diana suffered from bulimia while she was married to Prince Charles. Her battle with the disease is now well-documented in books, films, and magazine and newspaper articles, as well as on the Netflix series The Crown. It's still unclear whether she ever fully recovered, though she did speak about it on multiple occasions.
Melanie C
Former Spice Girls member Melanie C, aka Sporty Spice, has talked about struggling with an eating disorder and depression in the early days of her career. She said it started before the pop group hit it big, after she got into a disagreement with bandmate Victoria Beckham and almost got kicked out of the group. At that point, she started being really strict with herself. "I went from being anorexic to having a binge-eating disorder," she said in an interview.
Naya Rivera
Glee actress Naya Rivera, who died in a boat accident in 2020, wrote about struggling with an eating disorder as a teenager in her memoir, Sorry Not Sorry. "I just avoided food at all costs," she wrote. "If my mom had packed a lunch for me, I'd either trash it or find some excuse to give it away."
Ginger Zee
Author and Good Morning America meteorologist Ginger Zee penned a letter to her younger self in February 2020, reflecting on her battle with anorexia, which began when she was in fourth grade. In the letter, Ginger explained that her illness was more about control than it was about food. "You feel this secret is your secret power," she wrote.
Christina Ricci
Actress Christina Ricci, who spent most of her childhood and a good part of her adulthood in the public eye, opened up about the eating disorder she battled for years in an issue of Marie Claire UK and on The Talk in 2012. She revealed that she was outed by someone when she was 14, and that she believes the pressures of being a celebrity led to her condition.
Kate Beckinsale
Many years ago, actress Kate Beckinsale revealed that by age 15 she was suffering from anorexia. She said that her father died when she was very young and her mother was unable to have any other children, and she thinks that the loneliness and pressure of being an only child may have contributed to her eventually becoming anorexic.
Calista Flockhart
After years of speculation, actress Calista Flockhart revealed in 2006 that she did in fact have an eating disorder when she starred on the hit show Ally McBeal. "At the time of all that, I was seriously stressed," she said. "I was working 15-hour days on the set and then I was dealing with the end of the show, which was basically my life. I started under-eating, over-exercising, pushing myself too hard, and brutalizing my immune system. I guess I just didn't find time to eat."
Sadie Robertson Huff
Duck Dynasty star and Dancing With the Stars alum Sadie Robertson Huff confessed that she had an eating disorder in a blog post in 2017. She's since explained that while competing on DWTS at just 17 years old, people constantly made comments about her weight loss at the time — and that pushed her into an eating disorder once her stint on the physically demanding show was over.
Laura Prepon
Actress and entrepreneur Laura Prepon, best known for her roles in That '70s Show and Orange Is the New Black, has said that she suffered from bulimia from the time she was 15 until well into her 20s — and horribly, that her mother encouraged her in it. In her book, You & I, as Mothers, she wrote that after a casting call during which she was told she needed to lose 25 pounds, her mother helped her learn how to binge and purge. "My mom started weighing me every morning and taking my measurements," she said. "That's when she told me, 'You can have your cake and eat it too.'"
