Portia de Rossi makes no secret of her happy relationship with Ellen DeGeneres but she has revealed on the Oprah Winfrey Show a much darker story about her past, confessing she once suffered from the eating disorder, Anorexia.
The 37-year-old actress has a much healthier figure these days but there was time according to the star of “Ally McBeal” and “Arrested Development” that she let her body weight slip down to a very dangerous weight.
At one point you got down to 82 lbs and you were proud of being 82lbs” says Oprah in an interview with de Rossi “It wasn’t that I was proud of it, but, it was certainly a recognition for my self control I definitely had some pretty amazing will power to get down to 82lbs and that is what I was holding on to I did not think about anything else”
In her new memoir which will be available in stores this week “Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain,” de Rossi explains that it was her struggle to come to terms with her sexual identity that led her to an eating disorder in which she limited herself to fewer than 150 calories a day.
According to London’s Daily Mail, she took 20 laxatives a day while keeping her illness a secret from her cast mates and friends. She reportedly 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. Portia says of her mindset at the time:
I would prefer to die than fail another diet” Once she overcame her anorexia, the five-foot-eight actress shot up to 168 lbs in a single year”
At a concert for “Rock the Vote,” de Rossi was introduced to talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who eventually changed her whole perspective on life – for the better.
Ellen saw a glimpse of my inner being from underneath the flesh and bone, reached in and pulled me out,” de Rossi said.
DeGeneres, 52, and de Rossi married at their home in Beverly Hills on the Aug. 16, 2008. In a legally recognized ceremony, they exchanged vows in front of 19 of their closest friends and family.
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