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Portia de Rossi says she almost died trying to lose weight
by Samia Sehgal - November 1, 2010 - comments
While promoting her new memoir ‘Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain’ on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show,’ de Rossi revealed that she was once only eating 300 calories a day.
Actress Portia de Rossi has opened up about the eating disorder she once suffered, and how close it had brought her to death. While promoting her new memoir ‘Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain’ on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show,’ de Rossi revealed that she was once only eating 300 calories a day.
“It wasn't that I was proud of it,” she told Oprah in an interview to air Monday. “But it was certainly a recognition for my self-control. I definitely had some pretty amazing willpower to get down to 82 pounds. And that's what I was holding onto to. I didn't think about anything else.”
De Rossi’s eating disorder
5 foot and 8 inches tall actress currently weighs 168 pounds. She tells Oprah that she suffered anorexia after moving from Australia to Hollywood, and just before hitting it big with ‘McBeal.’
The 37-year-old explains that her rigid diet was just a way to come to terms with her sexual identity. It was accompanied with constant exercise, and had major implications on her overall well-being.
“I'd never known a day when my weight wasn't the determining factor for my self esteem,” de Rossi is quoted as saying in Britain's Daily Mail. “The more effort I put into starving myself, the more satisfaction I would feel.”
Ellen saw a glimpse of my inner being from underneath the flesh and bone, reached in and pulled me out. -- Portia de Rossi
At one point, she felt she would “prefer to die than fail another diet.”
Taking 20 laxatives a day, de Rossi almost flushed out every bit of vigor in her body. Her castmates and friends had no idea about her illness, as she kept it all a secret.
Saved by love
Her problem was discovered when she collapsed on the set of the 2001 film ‘Who Is Cletis Tout?’ and was told she was suffering from osteoporosis, cirrhosis, organ failure and the auto-immune disease lupus.
De Rossi could emerge from this phase only after she was introduced to Ellen DeGeneres at a concert for ‘Rock the Vote.’
“Ellen saw a glimpse of my inner being from underneath the flesh and bone, reached in and pulled me out,” de Rossi said, crediting her partner for changing her whole perspective on life - for the better.
De Rossi married the 52-year-old talk show host at their home in Beverly Hills on the Aug. 16, 2008. In an interview with People magazine, De Rossi said that marriage has “completely changed her life.”