Troian Bellisario’s previous struggle with an eating disorder made her "worried" about raising a daughter.
The former ‘Pretty Little Liars’ actress welcomed her baby girl – whom she has with husband Patrick J. Adams – into the world in October, and has said her past experience battling an eating disorder made her think her daughter was going to "hate" her, because she didn’t think she would be able to teach her tot how to love her body the way it is.
She said: "I had always the expectation, for some reason, maybe it’s because I was surrounded by brothers growing up, that I was going to have a boy. Of course I was worried.
"I was thinking about my relationship with my mother, I was thinking about, honestly, my history with my eating disorder, this is horrifying. My imaginings of a girl are just so, ‘You’re gonna hate me.’"
But the 33-year-old actress says her "wonderful group" of female friends and family have been able to support her through the process, and she now feels able to discuss her issues with her own mother, which she wasn’t able to in the past.
Speaking on Katie Lowe’s Shondaland podcast, ‘Katie’s Crib’, Troian said: "I had a really wonderful group of women around me, and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more and more better friends with women. It’s just nice to be able to see my mother give love to her in a way that’s not burdened with our 33 years of experience."
Troian starred in ‘Feed’ in 2017 which explored eating disorders, and previously said making the movie helped her to better understand what she had been through.
She said at the time: "I got to examine the illness from a greater perspective. Now, jumping into the role and in acting it, I think I had a lot of naïveté just being like, ‘Yeah! I got this! You know? That was, like, years ago!’ and then all of a sudden I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this has just been living under the surface.’
"It was really important to re-engage in those conversations. To be open and to be vulnerable and continue to talk to my therapist and my family and say, ‘Wow, I’m really struggling with doing this,’ and even struggling with putting the story out there, you know?"
Troian Bellisario’s eating disorder made her worry about raising daughter
