'Desperate Housewives' Child Star Reveals She Developed an Eating Disorder at 7 Years Old Due to Comments About Her Appearance

By Brenda Alexander

Demi Lovato's little sister Madison De La Garza is opening up about the pressures of childhood stardom. She starred as Eva Longoria's character, Gabrielle Solis' daughter, on ABC's Desperate Housewives beginning in season 5. At the time, the series jumped five years ahead. De La Garza was just 6 years old when she was cast, and she remained in the role for three additional seasons. But being in the public eye was not an easy adjustment. She says criticism about her weight from cyber bullies turned into her adopting unhealthy habits.

"They said things like they wanted me to die because of what I looked like," she told Heart of the Matter podcast host Elizabeth Vargas during her appearance on the show. She would sneak and look at comments about herself online after episodes aired. "It was just horrible, like, 'ugly fat cow,' and 'I hope you get cancer and die because you're so fat," she added. "Just horrible, horrible, horrible things, and this was when I was 6, 7, 8 years old." And, it didn't help that jokes about her weight were part of the dialogue on the show. 

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"This was talked about literally in the script of the show," she continued. "The whole joke of my character was that Eva was this thin beautiful model and her daughter turned out to be quite the opposite." Luckily, she says Longoria "went out of her way to make me feel special." 

But the online chatter got to her. It's something that stuck with her for years, and she turned to try to control her weight in a dangerous way. "Reading comments like that definitely affected my mental health and ultimately played into me developing an eating disorder at a very young age…my first memories of trying to starve myself, I was 7 years old." She's since begun recovery.

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