‘Hollyoaks’ star Stephanie Waring was hospitalised when her weight plummeted to four-and-a-half stone at the height of her battle with anorexia.
The 41-year-old actress – who portrays Cindy Cunningham on the Channel 4 soap – began facing issues with her weight at the age of 14 and has confessed she sought help when doctors told her she would die if she wasn’t hospitalised.
Speaking to new! magazine, she said: "It was bad, really bad. I weighed 4st 7lb. The doctors basically said, ‘If you don’t go to hospital, you may as well get hit by a bus because you’re going to die.’ "
The soap star admits there wasn’t a single incident which triggered her eating disorder, and explained she became "scared to eat" after losing weight – and spent a year "eating nothing and exercising three times a day".
She said: "There was never one particular trigger. I was basically a fat kid and I wanted to look good in hot pants. I went on a diet but the diet never ended.
"I lost more and more weight, and started eating less, then I became scared to eat because I thought I’d put weight back on.
"It got to the point where I was eating nothing and exercising three times a day. That happened for over a year before it got to the point where it was like, ‘You’re going to die,’ and I went to hospital and got better."
Stephanie has since changed the way she views food, and now has more "acceptance" with her body.
She said: "I don’t think it ever leaves you especially because I was so young. I’m 41 now but it’s something so ingrained in you psychologically so it’s always there in the back of your mind.
"But I’ve learned to have a different relationship with food and now I have a lot more acceptance with my body."
Hollyoaks’ Stephanie Waring opens up about anorexia battle
