Portia de Rossi battled bulimia when she was only 12-years old. The actress is opening up about her eating disorders history, including anorexia, although she still gets tearful when she talks about it, reported Us Weekly .
She links her bulimia to her early career as a child model, which she reveals in the online docu-series “It Got Better” in which Portia talks about her secret struggles.
“I felt tremendous responsibility when I was 12-years old and I was put on a catwalk,” she recalled. “My modeling agents had told me to go on a diet. So I didn’t eat for 10 days before then.”
In addition, Portia now is revealing that she was bullied for her appearance.
“I get up on this catwalk, and I’m a little kid, and I’m posing and trying to be sexy and strutting around, and all the other models are making fun of my bushy eyebrows.”
And so for comfort, Portia turned to food.
“I got in the car after that event, and just opened up a bag of my favorite candy and put my whole head in it,” she explained.
But then that comfort turned into a weapon that she feared her body would use against her by adding weight.
“And I think, ‘S–t, what have I done? I just undid two weeks worth of dieting.’ I mean, I’m 12-years old. So then I vomit. Erase the feelings with food, erase the food by vomiting…but you’re still left with the shame.”
That was the beginning of Portia’s struggle with eating disorders , reported the Daily Mail .
“The capri pants I had just tried on were a [US] 6 and too tight, but to me size 8 didn’t exist,” recalled Portia.
So she decided that she had to keep dieting.
“I set myself a goal. I would wear those capri pants on day one of my new job and I would make them fit with the same diet that I had used for that fashion show.’
For years, Portia was viewed as too thin when photos would surface showing her very slender frame. At one point, she weighed only 38 kilograms, yet continued to starve herself on 300 calories a day. She also took laxatives.
But with help, including her marriage to Ellen DeGeneres, Portia recovered.
The “It Got Better” docu-series in which Portia talks about her battle with bulimia took its inspiration from the “It Gets Better Project,” reported Entertainment Tonight .
It was created to prevent LGBT youth suicides. Other celebrities featured in the Web series’ second season include Janet Mock and Nate Berkus. Portia’s episode airs Wednesday.
Portia isn’t the only celebrity to struggle with bulimia. As the Inquisitr reported, Zoe Kravitz also struggled with anorexia and bulimia , calling them “demons.”
[Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty Images]