Jameela Jamil has revealed how an eating disorder left a lasting impact on her body.
The Good Place actor recalled her struggle with an eating disorder on the latest episode of Kelly Ripa’s Let’s Talk off Camera podcast, admitting she “f***ed up my kidney, my liver, my digestive system, my heart”.
The actor, who was twice nominated for a People’s Choice Award for her role as Tahani Al-Jamil on The Good Place, shared that while she’d like to blame outside pressures for her self-esteem issues, “ultimately this one’s on me”.
“I took so many laxatives, I’m amazed I even still have an a**hole, to be perfectly honest,” the British actor, writer and TV presenter continued.
“I took any pill or drink or diet that Oprah recommended. I did it. I took it. You know, any very low-calorie supermodel diet.
“I’m so sorry to my body that I have jeopardised my future so severely for a beauty standard and to try to fit in with other people,” she said.
Jamil, who once called out Kim Kardashian for her participation in setting “impossible” beauty standards, added, “I think that’s really dangerous because we really have no idea the way that people’s fertility is f***ed, the way their long-term health is f***ed. We just don’t talk about it and it’s an inconvenient truth that the diet industry kind of squashes.”
Now that she’s been “eating properly” for nearly five years, Jamil said she’s happy about the progress she’s made.
“My hair has grown back, and my energy has come back, my sex drive has come back and everything is better in my life.”
