'The Partridge Family' Star Susan Dey Battled Anorexia For Many Years
Susan Dey first rose to fame in her role as a charming, innocent looking girl named Laurie Partridge on ‘The Partridge Family’, a television series about a widow and her children forming a school bus band. While the role was fantastic for Ms. Dey’s early career, it proved to be disastrous for her long-term health and personal life.
While Ms. Dey worked on ‘The Partridge Family’, she found herself under a lot of pressure to look thin for the camera. As the pressure mounted, Ms. Dey began to struggle with a range of disordered eating habits. When her eating disorder was at its worst, Ms. Dey was no longer menstruating and only weighed 92 pounds. During this period, Ms. Dey was only eating uncooked carrots.
Further into her career, Ms. Dey would later admit that she only realized how unhealthy her eating habits were when Danny Bonaduce, a fellow child actor on ‘The Partridge Family’, looked at her in disgust when she was in a bikini at a beach party. “What’s wrong with you?” he is quoted as saying. “Your skin is orange! You look disgusting.”
In a later interview with The Enquirer, Ms. Dey opened up about her long and arduous struggle with eating disorders. “I’m not in the clear yet – I’m still trying to overcome my anorexia,” said Ms. Day. “It’s something that has been plaguing my life…Beating a severe eating disorder is something you cannot do alone.”
Unfortunately, during Ms. Dey’s time on ‘The Partridge Family’, eating disorders like anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa were still a taboo topic. As a result, Ms. Dey found that she had no choice but to battle with her condition alone for years.
After getting married, it seems like Ms. Dey was finally able to get herself on a pathway towards recovery. “It also helps when you have lots of support at home – which I do,” Ms. Dey told The Enquirer. “My husband has been terrific! With him backing me all the way, I’m never alone.”
Encouragingly, Ms. Dey is not the only celebrity who has decided to speak out about their battle to overcome an eating disorder. If you want to know more about celebrities who have struggled with eating disorders, check out the inspiring stories relayed by Zayn Malik, Camila Mendes, Lady Gaga, Russel Brand, Hillary Duff, Lily Collins, Demi Lovato, Elton John, and Kate Winslet.
Sources: Worldation, NNDB Sick Celebrities,
Photo: Wikimedia Commons Public Domain
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