Jameela Jamil has revealed how her previous experience with an eating disorder left a lasting impact on her body.
On a recent episode of Kelly Ripa’s Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast, she admitted to ruining her organs and destroying her ‘bone density’.
The actress, 38, said the condition started at a young age, after she had to weigh herself in front of her class for a school project.
Although she started eating more regularly at the age of 19, the star said she ‘still didn’t eat a proper meal until I was 30’.
Jamil admitted that anorexia had made her ‘an exhausted, boring, navel-gazing obsessive person’ in her teens and early 20s.
Jameela Jamil has revealed her eating disorder ruined her organs and destroyed her bone density as she admits to not eating a proper meal until she was 30
On a recent episode of Kelly Ripa’s Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast, the actress, 38, said the condition started at a young age, after she had to weigh herself in front of her class for a school project
‘I took any pill or drink or diet that Oprah recommended,’ she said, ‘I did it, I took it. You know, any very low calorie supermodel diet.
‘Thinness is a form of assimilation, especially for women.
‘I had never planned on being in the showbusiness industry and I can’t think of a worse industry for me to have entered with a history of eating disorders, given that to assimilate you’re supposed to be thin unless you want your identity to be the fact that you stand out for not being thin and that is the only thing we talk about.
‘I’m so sorry to my body that I have jeopardised my future so severely for a beauty standard and to try to fit in with other people.
‘That’s why I’m so annoying publicly about eating disorders and diets – because there’s so much talk about the dangers of being in a bigger body and there’s no talk, almost, about the dangers of not eating enough, only eating too much.’
Posting on her Instagram in April to raise awareness, Jamil uploaded two comparing images of herself.
‘I had less work ethic and no sex drive for the next 3 years as I continued getting thinner and thinner and being more and more congratulated,’ she said.
‘Even though I was destroying my organs and bones. Always told how clever and disciplined I was.
‘”Almost there!” Stylists would tell me, as I got closer to size ZERO “sample size.” At 5 foot TEN.
‘I remember shooting for American Vogue in 2010 and was given size 0 and 00 to wear and had to be put in four pairs of spanx to get into the skirt I had to wear and was made to feel like I was the one who should be embarassed for being a size 4.
‘At a different big shoot I was told I was ‘too fat’ to wear the size zero clothes and had to just hold the dress over me as I stood almost naked in a room full of strangers.
Posting on her Instagram in April to raise awareness, Jamil uploaded two comparing images of herself
In a lengthy caption she admitted she was happier in the first image before she succumbed to the pressures of losing weight
Last month Jamil revealed how she was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery
The TV personality, took to Instagram to explain how she had undergone a bone graft before suffering ‘horrendous’ Gastritis after taking antibiotics and pain killers post op
‘David Bailey literally shouted cheerfully, “she’s too fat for the dresses, we’ll shoot her naked”.
‘I don’t think I ate for about 3 weeks after that.’
Last month Jamil revealed how she was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.
She took to Instagram to explain how she had undergone a bone graft before suffering ‘horrendous’ Gastritis after taking post op antibiotics and pain killers.
According to NHS Gastritis is when the lining of your stomach becomes inflamed causing pain, indigestion and sickness.
She wrote: ‘Guess who had a lil emergency operation and a bone graft and took antibiotics and pain killers and woke up with gastritis?!’
Before asking followers: ‘Please send me funny animal videos at this horrendous time. Fork everything.’
If you are struggling with an eating disorder call Beat Eating Disorders for free on 0808 801 0677
