Tara Reid Has a Direct Response to Those Eating Disorder Rumors
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Tara Reid is shutting down the gossip about her appearance once and for all.
The American Pie actress is opening up about the resurgence of body criticism with The Los Angeles Inquisitor, which Page Six obtained a sneak peek of, in which the 47-year-old unequivocally denies the rumors that she now or ever has had an eating disorder.
According to the publication, she jumped at the chance to set the record straight when the Inquisitor's publisher Derek Warburton approached her.
“I have no anorexia and never have,” she immediately confirmed. “And I definitely don’t have any bulimia. I’m terrified of throwing up, so that’s not gonna happen. And I love food too much.”
She went on to say that anyone calling her anorexic or bulimic is wrong and requested they all "stop it."
"Leave me alone," she continued. "Pick on me again on something else, but not on those two things. It’s not right.”
Reid has often been on the other end of the microscope when it comes to her weight—especially rising to fame in the early aughts—but commentary picked up again after she appeared on the second season of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
Part of the reason she decided to participate in the "really intense” reality series, which puts celebrities through military-style training and challenges in line with those that actual special forces recruits go through, was to “get over certain issues that [she has] deep inside.”
She explained, “I thought if I could do this, try this, maybe I can get over some of the things that I have, like, the darkness inside of me.” A lot of that darkness was caused by bullying.
“I’m so glad I did it because it really did help me. It made me learn my strength, my mental strength, my inner strength — not necessarily my physical strength,” she said, referring to the fact that she didn't make it very far through the season. “But I learned a lot about myself, and I came back feeling like a better person.”
Despite her quick exit, fans have flooded her with support for her impressive display. “I literally started reading the messages, the text messages … private DMS … and all these people are coming in and just saying, like, ‘Be strong. You did a great job. We love you. We support you,'” she shared, adding that the sweet notes made her tear up, "because it felt so good because I never felt that support.”
Though she can't write back to everyone who has reached out to her, she took the opportunity to address them all during the interview, thanking them for "making [her] feel good again."
"Thank you to everyone that supported me and made me feel better and really made me want to be a better person," she continued. "I appreciated every single comment that every single fan said, and I just want to say thank you to all of them.”
Reid was dealing with the same criticisms when she spoke to Page Six in Nov. 2021, explaining that she's "always been thin.” She's never had any large fluctuations in her weight, which makes those rumors all the more "kind of crazy" to her.
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