LETTING IT ALL OUT –
August 12, 2021 – In his 2016 photographic autobiography, musician Zayn Malik discussed the disordered eating that plagued him during his time in One Direction. He wrote,
“Something I’ve never talked about in public before, but which I have come to terms with since leaving the band, is that I was suffering from an eating disorder. It wasn’t as though I had any concerns about my weight or anything like that. I’d just go for days — sometimes two or three days straight – without eating anything at all. It got quite serious, although at the time I didn’t recognize it for what it was.”
He continued, “I think it was about control. I didn’t feel like I had control over anything else in my life, but food was something I could control, so I did. I had lost so much weight I had become ill. The workload and the pace of life on the road put together with the pressures and strains of everything going on within the band had badly affected my eating habits.”
Musician Elton John has long been open about his past with eating disorders. In 2019, he discussed his many addictions including cocaine, alcohol, and sex. But he got particularly detailed when it came to his binge eating. He said, “I was bulimic for six years. It was all through being paranoid about my weight but not able to stop eating. So in the end I’d gorge, then make myself sick.”
