As an aspiring actress, Jane Fonda suffers from severe bulimia. The disease has determined her life for years, the Hollywood icon now reveals in a podcast. Only a “cold turkey” brings the rescue.
Jane Fonda has lived a secret life for years. In a new episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, the 85-year-old actress opens up about her years-long struggle with an eating disorder, which she says has been a “horrible addiction.” “I was just starting my acting career in my 20s. I was very, very badly bulimic,” Fonda told podcast host Alex Cooper. “I was very, very unhappy.” She didn’t think at the time that she would reach her 30th birthday.
Addiction ruled her whole life. She explains: “I hardly dated because I was unhappy and had this eating disorder. And then I also made films that I didn’t particularly like.” She quickly fell into the trap of the eating disorder: At first her unhealthy habits seemed “so innocent”, soon every aspect of her life was determined by the thought of the disease.
“It’s a very lonely thing. And you get addicted to it. If you eat something, you want to get rid of it,” says Fonda, describing her condition. Pressure from outside – from the film industry and from her family – would have fueled the bulimia even further.
The disease was still a taboo subject at the time, nobody talked about it. “I didn’t even know there was a word for it!” The bulimia accompanied her for years, and Fonda only realized shortly before her 40th birthday: “If I keep going like this, I will die.” A “cold turkey” followed. “It was really difficult. (…) But over time it gets easier and easier.”
