Amelia Gray Hamlin Says She ‘Lashed Out’ at Dad Harry Hamlin Because of Her ‘Fear of Food’
Amelia Gray Hamlin is speaking out about why her eating disorder caused her to lash out at her dad Harry Hamlin on Tuesday’s episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
During the show, viewers watched as Lisa Rinna and her husband Harry, 67, had an outdoor dinner at their home with their daughters Amelia, 17, and Delilah Belle Hamlin, 20.
“Harry has a side to him that loves to make things nice,” Rinna, 55, said about the father of two, who prepared a meal of hamburgers, hot dogs and pie.
But when Harry brought out the food, Amelia stated, “I’m not hungry.”
Encouraging her daughters to have at least some of the meal, Rinna said, “You guys have to eat a little bit for dad.”
“No, I’m just not hungry,” said Amelia. “I’m allergic to everything.”
When Delilah asked, “You’re allergic to salad?” Amelia said, “No, I can have salad. But I don’t like that salad.”
After Harry tried to get Amelia to eat another time, the model grew so angry with him that she gave him the middle finger.
In a confessional, Rinna shared, “Amelia has issues with food. You watch Amelia take two steps forward, one step back. It is not an easy, clean, ‘Okay great, you know, you did that, you had that, you got the help.’ It’s not like that. It’s just, you know, one day at a time.”
Before the episode aired, Amelia explained her behavior was a result of her having a “fear of food.”
“Tonight on the housewives you will see how my eating disorder affected myself and my family. There is a scene where I am EXTREMELY rude to my dad and the food that he wants me to eat,” Amelia wrote in one of her Instagram Stories.
“During that time, one year ago — I was not in a good place at all,” Amelia added. “I may have looked like I was recovered, but I was most definitely not. Within the scene you will see me lashing out due to my fear of food.”
“The person displayed in tonight’s episode is not the person I am. It was the person anorexia made me… I just wanted everyone to know why I acted the way that I did,” Amelia explained.
Amelia went on to state that it pains her to relive that time in her life because she says she was “so blind to how trapped I was and how different I acted.”
However, she revealed she’s now “100% recovered and happy.”
“Hamburgers are a weekly occurrence in my diet now — incase anyone was wondering,” Amelia added.
Amelia later responded to critics, who slammed her behavior as “disgusting.”
“Your daughter’s behavior is disgusting,” a commenter wrote under one of Rinna’s Instagram posts.
“HOLD THE MOTHER F—— PHONE PEOPLE R SO FLIPPING FUNNY. TELL ME YOU’VE NEVER BEEN A BITCH ONCE TO YOUR PARENTS. TELL ME PLEASEEEEE,” Amelia wrote over a screengrab of the comment in one of her Instagram Stories.
The model also clapped back at a fan, who blamed Rinna for Amelia’s actions.
“Sorry Lisa your responsible for your daughter’s behavior,” the fan wrote.
“Sorry, but I have the best mom in the whole entire world!! Stop being so jealous! Hahaha,” Amelia wrote over a grab of the comment.
Amelia also shared that a “woman just told me I don’t look anorexic… this world is pushing my buttons. SOMEONE HOLD ME BACK.”
“Sadly, I feel the need to remind people what anorexia looks like. And there is not just one type,” Amelia wrote before sharing two very different photos of herself while struggling with the disease.
RELATED: Lisa Rinna’s Daughter Amelia Gray Hamlin Reveals Former Struggle with an Eating Disorder
After having enough of the backlash, Amelia said she needed a “break from social media.”
“Signing off until the hypocrites stop criticizing me,” she added. “To all of the people sitting back commenting on an 18 year old photo imagine if you heard hundreds of comments of how disgusting you are. Then lmk if you’d still sit there and write those rude words. Everything comes full circle people.”
Amelia had first gone public with her personal battle with anorexia in 2018, writing a lengthy Instagram message in the caption of two bikini photos of herself: one from 2017 and another taken shortly before her posting.
On a previous episode of RHOBH earlier this year, Amelia admitted to her mother that her struggle with the eating disorder got so bad that at one point, she “could have died.”
Reflecting on her daughter’s battle, Rinna admitted on-camera during Tuesday’s episode that she was worried Amelia would never overcome the eating disorder. “The scariest thing about anorexia is: Is she going to have this forever?” Rinna said about her daughter.
“I don’t want to see her suffer. You want to fix it,” said the mother of two. “You want to make it go away. You want to erase it. You know, you just want to take your child out of pain. You don’t want your child to be in pain.”
Rinna said in Tuesday’s confessional interview, “You can’t help but blame yourself. You know, it’s like, ‘What did we do to f— her up?’ Maybe we did something. I don’t know. I just know that it’s really, really hard to watch Amelia be in pain.”
Also in her March 2018 Instagram post, Amelia opened up about what led to her recovery.
Amelia said she woke up “one morning” and decided to stop “sabotaging myself…my health, my physical health, my mental health and everything about myself.”
She continued, “Once I got the help that I needed, shortly after the second photo was taken, I began to try to love myself for me.”
“I am SO beyond humbled and grateful to have the platform that I do at such a young age,” Amelia added. “And to wake up every morning with a little girl reaching out to me and telling me I am her inspiration, really makes me feel like I have a purpose. I went through this journey not for attention, not for people to pitty [sic] me, but to help. I am on this earth to help people, and I know that.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs on Tuesdays (9 p.m. ET) on Bravo.
If you or someone you know is battling an eating disorder, please contact the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) at 1-800-931-2237 or go to NationalEatingDisorders.org.
