Victoria Beckham to Taylor Swift, 7 celebrities who have opened up about eating disorders

Victoria Beckham is opening up about her eating disorder in her latest self-titled docuseries, which is streaming on Netflix.

The actress discusses battling an eating disorder and the lengths she went to control her weight.

“I don’t know what I saw when I looked in the mirror, was I fat? Was I thin? I don’t know. You lose all sense of reality. I was just very critical of myself. I didn’t like what I saw. It’s been a lot and that’s hard,” explained Victoria Beckham.

Victoria Beckham said the struggle started after the Spice Girls broke up in 2000. Victoria married David Beckham in 1999, and the couple has four children: Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz, and Harper.

“I could control [how I was perceived] with clothing, I could control my weight. I was controlling it in an incredibly unhealthy way. When you have an eating disorder, you become very good at lying,” shared Victoria Beckham.

Following Victoria Beckham's admission, we have listed seven celebrities, including Victoria Beckham, who have also publicly discussed their eating disorders.

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Taylor Swift opened up about past struggles with an eating disorder in the 2020 documentary, Miss Americana

Taylor Swift confronted her past struggles with eating disorders and body image in Miss Americana (2020), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The documentary included a montage of critical commentary from television shows over the years, including one remark that said,

“She’s too skinny. It bothers me.”

For Taylor Swift, those words eventually hit home. She admitted that being photographed constantly could trigger unhealthy habits. After stepping outside her home and facing photographers, she reflected, sharing,

“It’s not good for me to see pictures of myself every day.”

She acknowledged, “It only happened a few times, and I’m in no way proud of it,” but added that certain images could push her to extremes.

“A picture of me where I feel like I looked like my tummy was too big, or… someone said that I looked pregnant … and that’ll just trigger me to just starve a little bit - just stop eating.”

Taylor Swift told Variety in 2020 that speaking about her experiences for the documentary had been difficult.

“I didn’t know if I was going to feel comfortable with talking about body image and talking about the stuff I’ve gone through in terms of how unhealthy that’s been for me - my relationship with food and all that over the years," she shared.

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Tess Holliday talked about anorexia and body image struggles

In May 2021, model Tess Holliday opened up about her journey with an eating disorder on social media, following comments about her weight. As reported by People Magazine, she posted on X,

“I'm anorexic and in recovery. I'm not ashamed to say it out loud anymore. I'm the result of a culture that celebrates thinness and equates that to worth, but I get to write my own narrative now. I'm finally able to care for a body that I've punished my entire life and I am finally free.”

On Instagram, Holliday addressed unsolicited remarks about her appearance, writing,

“To everyone that keeps saying 'you're looking healthy lately' or 'You are losing weight, keep it up!' Stop. Don't. Comment. On. My. Weight. Or. Perceived. Health. Keep. It. To. Yourself. Thanks.”

“I'm healing from an eating disorder and feeding my body regularly for the first time in my entire life,” she added.

Holliday concluded her message with a firm reminder to her followers:

“If you can't tell someone they look nice without making it about their size, then baby, please don't say nuthin at all.”

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JoJo recalls harsh diet and body image struggles in teen years

According to People Magazine, singer JoJo revealed in an interview with Uproxx that she had been put on a 500-calorie diet as a teenager.

“I was like, 'Let me see how skinny I can get, because maybe then they'll put out an album. Maybe I'm just so disgusting that no one wants to see me in a video and they can't even look at me,'" she shared.

JoJo recalled thinking after being instructed to lose weight by her former label, Blackground Records.

The singer was eventually released from her contract with Blackground Records in 2014.

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Jackie Goldschneider reflects on life and recovery after anorexia:

Jackie Goldschneider also opened up about her eating disorder. In a candid November 2018 interview with People Magazine, the Real Housewives of New Jersey star described years of obsessive habits, fear, and extreme measures.

"I couldn't stop, I would do hardcore cardio no matter what, even if I was sick with the flu. I weighed every single thing that I would eat - down to a piece of gum - because I had to know I had the right amount of calories. I learned really creative ways to satisfy hunger without eating. I got very, very thin and I became so scared of putting any weight back on. I got myself caught up in it all, in these habits that were incredibly unhealthy. And they stuck with me for the next 10 years," she explained.

She recalled a moment of raw clarity. Stepping on a scale, she realized, "I'm going to die if I don't stop." That fear, finally confronted, pushed her toward help. "It's horrible," she said, reflecting on those years.

"Absolutely horrible. But I'm really proud of coming out of the other side because it was so hard. And I'm hoping that I can help people out there like me, who usually just suffer in silence. Because I wish I knew that one day, I'd get through it. That was always a fear of mine that I would never stop doing this," she shared.

Every step since has been a reminder: survival doesn’t look neat. It looks real, and sometimes it looks scary.

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Jeannie Mai opens up about her struggle with disordered eating before gaining weight

Like Victoria Beckham and other celebrities in this list, Jeannie Mai has also revealed her struggles. Before she gained 17 pounds in 2018, the Real co-anchor struggled with disordered eating, always trying to stay petite. "I was low-key abusing myself," Mai said on the debut episode of her web series Hello Hunnay.

"The idea of being skinny became something that was most appealing to me. Even if you watch The Real, from season 1 to season 4, I was always 100 lbs. I started to really work hard to stay petite and to not gain weight and to stay sample size."

The moment that shifted her perspective came from a photograph.

"I didn't realize that until I saw a picture of myself where my knees were really pointy and my shoulders were pointy, I looked weak," she shared.

With guidance from a friend, she developed a healthy eating routine centered on whole foods, grains, and good fats, and incorporated gym sessions to release stress.

"Now I've totally got a new perspective on body, I love how it feels to go into the gym, crank all my favorite music and literally sweat out all of the things that stress me out," she shared.

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Ireland Baldwin reflects on past battle with anorexia

Ireland Baldwin was open about the darker parts of her past. Back in 2018, she used Instagram to revisit her experience with anorexia, sharing an old photo labeled “Anorexia throwback.” Another image, her younger self in a bikini, came with a short caption: “Nope.”

"I battled with many eating disorders and body issues as a younger girl and it took me a long time to find self love and acceptance, trust me, all of that pain and destruction I inflicted on myself wasn't worth it. Turning down so. Many. Sides. Of. Fries. Wasn't worth it!!" she admitted in the post.

It was a rare, vulnerable look at what recovery can mean, and a small celebration of finally feeling at peace.

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Victoria Beckham says constant criticism left lasting scars

As Victoria Beckham premiered on Netflix, the designer used it as a moment to revisit her painful part of her past, years spent under constant public scrutiny. Victoria Beckham revealed she had “never been honest with my parents,” admitting,

“I never talked about it publicly. It really affects you when you are being told constantly that you are not good enough. I suppose that has been with me my whole life,” shared Victoria Beckham.

The commentary about Victoria Beckham's body never seemed to stop.

“I’ve been everything from Porky Posh to Skinny Posh, I mean, you know it’s been a lot, and that is hard. I had no control over what’s been written about me, pictures that were being taken, and I suppose I wanted to control that, you know, control it with the clothing,” Victoria Beckham recalled.

One particularly painful memory stood out for Victoria Beckham: being weighed on television in 1999, just months after she had her first child, Brooklyn.

Victoria Beckham's husband, David Beckham, also reflected:

“People felt it was OK to criticize a woman for her weight, there were a lot of things happening on TV then that won’t happen now, that can’t happen now,” he shared.