As the discussion around eating disorders becomes less and less taboo, a growing number of high-profile celebrities have begun to talk about their own battles with eating disorders. In this article, we’ll take a look at five celebrities who have openly discussed their own battles with overcoming eating disorders.

1. Zayn Malik

Zayn Malik first rose to fame as a member of the acclaimed pop band ‘One Direction’. After achieving enormous success with the English-Irish boy band, Zayn departed from the group in March 2015. One year later, the pop sensation opened up about his crippling eating disorder during this period.

“Something I’ve never talked about in public before, but which I have come to terms with since leaving the band, is that I was suffering from an eating disorder,” he told The Sun.

“It wasn’t as though I had any concerns about my weight or anything like that, I’d just go for days — sometimes two or three days straight — without eating anything at all. It got quite serious, although at the time I didn’t recognize it for what it was.”

After taking an extended break from the spotlight, Zayn was able to spend some time with his family and has since managed to make a full recovery from his eating disorder.

2. Hillary Duff

Despite beginning her career as a teen idol, Hillary Duff didn’t have any difficulties with eating disorders until she gave birth to her first child. After gaining a small amount of baby weight, Duff became terrified that she wouldn’t be able to lose the weight.

"Oh my God, everyone was so hard on me because it took me a year and a half to get my body back! When I was 17, I weighed, like, 98 pounds," she told E News. "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."

Fortunately, Duff was able to break her unhealthy eating habits before they became too destructive, telling E News: "I feel like there was way too much time spent thinking about that…This is the body that I have. I have a very athletic build, and I am so proud of what my body has done for me.”

3. Camila Mendes

Camila Mendes, who stars in the hugely popular CW series ‘Riverdale’, is in the final stages of recovering from bulimia and body image anxiety. "I've struggled with bulimia. It happened a little bit in high school and again when I was in college. Then it came back when I started working in this industry with fittings all the time and watching myself on camera,” she told Page Six.

Mendes credits her rapid eating disorder recovery process to three things: exercise, her therapist, and her nutritionist.

4. Nicole Scherzinger

Nicole Scherzinger has discussed her battles with body dysmorphia in numerous videos on her social media accounts. As part of a recent Child Mind Institute's #MyYoungerSelf mental health awareness campaign, Nicole looked back on her path to recovery.

“I was just really hard on myself, I had a lot of struggles with self-esteem and a lot of insecurities and later on that resulted in me having eating disorders because of my body dysmorphia,” she said with a smile. “Just hold on, don't give up. Don't let anyone else, not even yourself, get in the way of who you are and who you were created to be.”

5. Lily Collins

Lily Collins is a well-known advocate for eating disorder awareness. In 2017, Lily famously explored her horrible time as an anorexic in ‘To The Bone’, a dark comedy film about her experience with anorexia nervosa.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Lily spoke honestly about how her experiences shaped the film, saying: “It really felt like this was the universe saying, ‘This is either something you need to address yourself or something you need to bring to new people. It’s a conversation that you need to help start among young people—males and females—because it is becoming more and more prevalent for both now.”

Sources: CNN, USA Today, Daily Mail UK, Vanity Fair, E! Online

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