Kyle Richards is opening up about her struggle with anorexia for the first time ever — revealing she once was only 99 lbs.
In Tuesday’s episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Richards felt compelled to share her history with the eating disorder after hearing co-star Lisa Rinna discuss daughter Amelia Gray’s ongoing struggle.
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“I feel really weird even saying this now because I’ve never, ever talked about this, not even to my daughters, which is why I’m staying quiet because I feel weird,” Richards began. “When I was younger, I had my own problems, but I never wanted to say it because I had my daughters, and I never even wanted that in their head.”
“It started when I was 17,” she recalled. “I was on a TV show, and I didn’t like — they kept putting me in these big things, and my boobs were big when I was young. And it was like, my sisters were tiny and cute. Everybody was blonde, blue-eyed and skinny. I said, ‘I don’t like my wardrobe.’ And they said, ‘Well, lose some weight, and we’ll put you in cute wardrobe.’”
Erika Girardi added, “Yeah, and then you started doing that,” with Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave chiming in, “And then you’d get rewarded for it.”
“People would compliment me, and the more they complimented me, the less I would eat,” Kyle affirmed, going into detail about the unhealthy eating habits that dropped her down to a dangerous weight. “I would take V8 juice and put it in a bowl and heat it up, and that was my food. I was 99 lbs. I was like that for years. I mean, I remember times when I’d say, ‘I’m only gonna have six almonds today. That’s all. That’s what I’m gonna have.’”
As Dorit Kemsley gasped in surprise, Kyle explained of the trigger behind her mental health issues, “When I was growing up, and my sisters were so skinny and all the models were, that’s what triggered all of that. But I was very self-conscious.”
Seeing Amelia open up publicly about her struggle, she added, inspired her to do likewise.
“I can’t just pretend that I don’t know what that feels like,” she said. “So, guess what? I had an eating disorder when I was younger.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo.
Photo credit: Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage
