‘Spy Kids’ Star Alexa PenaVega Reveals Heartbreaking Hospitalization Story

Spy Kids star Alexa PenaVega is getting real about how her eating disorder has had long-lasting effects on her health. The 33-year-old mother of three is currently on tour promoting her new memoir What If Love Is the Point?, which she co-authored with her husband Carlos PenaVega. In a Thursday Instagram post, she read an excerpt from her book, which detailed what happened when she stopped binge eating and purging. “During that time, I was receiving only the smallest bits of nutrition,” she said. “I’ve been throwing up every meal I ate for five-ish years, and I brutalized my body so that it no longer could process food naturally. As a result, when I did make an effort to eat again, my body wasn’t able to handle food. So two months after I stopped binging and purging, I ended up being hospitalized for ulcers, bloating and other digestive complications.”

PenaVega said she’s had to see various doctors for treatment in an attempt to get her body back on track. She also answered a fan’s question in a Q&A on her IG story about her healing and recovery process. “My body had to reset itself,” she said. “There was a lot of learning like I had to learn what foods were actually nutritious, and honestly, that’s been a huge journey. I’m still learning what foods are right for my body. But I would say yeah, the beginning of my recovery from my eating disorder was the hardest because I was reintroducing food for the first time, and my body was not happy.”

This isn’t the first time she opened up about her history with an eating disorder. PenaVega spoke candidly about it while competing on Dancing With the Stars in 2015. She says she was praised for her weight by media personnel and industry people, despite being unhealthy. 

The actress became known globally as the result of her role in the 2001 film Spy Kids as Carmen Cortez. The film had two sequels, Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. She has other film and TV credits and has become a staple on Hallmark Channel’s programming in recent years.