Keira Knightley: trauma over eating disorder speculation

When Keira Knightley, 39, looks back on her early days in the spotlight, she remembers the trauma caused by constant speculation about her weight. It was often said that she had an eating disorder.

the actress (“Pirates of the Caribbean”) spoke about the hurtful public debate about her body. “I knew I wouldn’t [an einer Essstörung] suffered. I knew I ate,” she emphasizes. Knightley adds that she has since repressed much of this defamation. “I can’t remember it in that classic trauma way,” she explains, pointing out how young she was at the time .

“It was all deleted, but then some things happen and I suddenly have a very physical memory of it because at the end of the day it’s a public exposure,” she continued. The mother of two notes that the press often lacks empathy when it comes to celebrities who live with eating disorders. She is thinking of her colleague Mary-Kate Olsen (38), who was publicly mocked.

“I vividly remember one of the Olsen twins suffering from anorexia and checking into a clinic. I remember being asked about it on a press tour as if it was a joke,” criticized Knightley. The moment had a lasting impact on her, even though it wasn’t about her: “I still can’t bear it.”

Back in 2018, the Brit revealed on The Hollywood Reporter’s “Award’s Chatter” podcast that she suffered a “mental breakdown” at the age of 22 and that she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder: “I’ve been intensively involved in therapy and busy with all of this, and [eine Therapeutin] said: ‘It’s amazing – normally people come here thinking they’re being talked about and they think they’re being persecuted, but in reality that’s not the case. You’re the first person this has actually happened to!'”

Last year, the “Love Actually” actress also complained about the sexist perception in films like “Pirates of the Caribbean,” which she never felt comfortable with. “I felt very restricted,” she said, as her role was an “object of desire for everyone.” She added that the roles afterward represented her attempt to “break out of it.”