‘Emotionally too fragile’: Delta Burke admits to turning to crystal meth for weight loss

*Attached video: Celebrities from Ohio

(WJW) – Delta Burke, the actress best known for playing Suzanne Sugarbaker on “Designing Women” in the late 80s and early 90s, admitted she tried crystal meth for weight loss.

While discussing the mental and physical struggles she dealt with after facing scrutiny as a rising star during her appearance on the “Glamorous Trash” podcast, she said she started taking prescription pills while studying in London to lose weight.

Settlement in police chase that led to death of girl

“They made my heart race, but I lost weight,” Burke told host Chelsea Devantez.

Burke said that when she arrived back in the United States, she wanted a refill for the prescription but learned the pills, called “Black Beauties,” were illegal in America.

On set, she said she found someone who could get her more Black Beauties to keep her weight down.

“They were like medicine to me,” she said. “Take them in the morning so you won’t eat.”

Burke said that eventually, she built up a tolerance and the pills stopped working for her. That is when she was offered crystal meth as a substitute.

Family Dollar closing 35 Ohio stores

“Nobody knew about crystal meth at the time,” she said.

Burke was told to “snort” the drug, but instead, she put the drugs in cranberry juice to drink it.

“As I got heavier and as things turned incredibly ugly, which I was emotionally too fragile to handle,” Burke said.

She would drink her cranberry juice before work, where she was starting in “Filthy Rich” at the time, she told Devantez.

“I won’t eat for five days and they were still saying, ‘Your butt’s too big. Your legs are too big,’ And I now look back at those pictures and go, ‘I was a freaking goddess,'” she said. “I didn’t have a clue. I wish I had a clue.”

Motorists warned of smishing scam after intro of new Turnpike toll system

The scrutiny Burke faced over her weight contributed to her exit from the show.

“I did look back and realize that I was beautiful, I was gorgeous, and nobody said that. All they said was what a pig I was, which fed into my insecurities. I wish I had known, I wish that every young woman could know, she is beautiful, she’s got power and she doesn’t know it because they don’t want you to know it,” she said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW.