Diane Keaton has died at the age of 79, with the Hollywood icon bravely opening up about her battle with bulimia, which she described as ‘the lowest point in [her] life’
Diane Keaton, the Hollywood icon, has tragically passed away at the age of 79, sparking an outpouring of tributes from around the globe.
The star bravely opened up about her battle with bulimia in 2014, describing it as “the lowest point in [her] life”. As she aged with grace and poise, fans often marvelled at how she managed to maintain such good health and handle the ageing process with such resilience.
However, behind the scenes, the star was sadly grappling with body image issues and mental health struggles since her twenties. During a candid chat on The Dr Oz Show, Keaton confessed that she would consume a staggering 20,000 calories daily during the height of her bulimia battle.
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Describing a typical evening meal, the actress disclosed it would consist of “a bucket of fried chicken, several orders of fries with blue cheese and ketchup, a couple of TV dinners, a quarter of soda, pounds of candy, a whole cake, and three banana cream pies.”
According to People magazine, the star’s eating disorder began after the director of the Broadway show Hair offered Keaton the lead role on the condition that she lose weight.
“I was a fat person, I was an obese person, who had somehow tricked myself and managed to hide it,” Keaton explained. “So when you’re living with a lie for four years, think about what that does to you. All I did was feed my hunger, and I am an addict. It’s true. I’m an addict in recovery; I’ll always be an addict. I have an addictive nature to me.”
After losing a substantial amount of weight and keeping it off for over a year, the star admitted to becoming skilled at hiding her secret battle with the disorder.
“I had a problem – it was sick and creepy. Bulimia takes a lot of time out of your day,” she candidly told People magazine.
Despite conquering her bulimia, in a 2020 interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, the celebrity confessed that even as she grows older, she doesn’t feel “secure” in herself.
On the subject of ageing, she sadly expressed: “I don’t think it gets easier as you get older. I think it gets more pressing, just because it’s really about death. It’s really like approaching it, and how do you approach that part of your life? Nobody wants that.”
In conversation with chat show host Ellen DeGeneres about her therapy journey, Keaton revealed: “Because I talked. I spoke it out. I said my thoughts and feelings. And I feel like, once you do that, you own it as opposed to, if you don’t talk about it, it becomes very abstract. To keep secrets doesn’t help you at all.
“I think I’m a sister to all the rest of the women – and I’m sure men as well – who have had some kind of eating disorder, and I’m a part of the team.”
*For help and support on eating disorders contact Beat Eating Disorders on 0808 801 0677.
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