Bethenny Frankel has built a successful business empire on sharing her secrets to being thin.But the reality TV star, whose best-selling books include "Naturally Thin" and "The Skinnygirl Dish," has revealed she once resorted to dangerous methods to look lean.
The mother-of-one has admitted that up until her thirties, she was consumed by an obsession with weight loss.
After trying everything from binging to laxatives, the 40-year-old said she felt trapped and used to starve herself.
'I used to forbid myself from everything,' she revealed in the latest issue of Us Weekly magazine.
'Until my early thirties, I spent my entire life being obsessed with dieting. Bingeing and then fasting or starving. Forbidding everything.'
Bethenny said her issues began when she was in school and a class mate teased her about her appearance.
Following the incident, Bethenny, who said she was only around 8 pounds overweight, visited an obesity clinic.
In the revealing interview, she hinted that her own mother's difficult relationship with food had an impact on her.
Bethenny's mother, Bernadette Birk, from whom she is estranged, allegedly suffered bulimia.
'There was a lot of food obsession and diet obsession and being-thin obsession,' she said.
'My mother was very beautiful and very thin. Being thin was very important to her and part of her identity. I also wanted to be thin.'
The former Real Housewives Of New York star says she has now conquered her body-image struggle and has developed a healthy attitude to food.
'I always say I don't think you should be guilty about food,' she says. 'You can have it all. Just don't have it all at once!'
Credit: Daily Mail
