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Geri Halliwell spoke about her struggles with an eating disorder during the Spice Girls

Geri Halliwell spoke about her struggles with an eating disorder during the Spice Girls

Geri Halliwell spoke about her struggles with an eating disorder during the Spice Girls
Geri Halliwell spoke about her struggles with an eating disorder during the Spice Girls

Geri Horner, formerly Halliwell, recently appeared on Oprah’s Where Are They Now? bravely sharing honest insight into the harder moments from her time as Ginger Spice in the Spice Girls.

20 years ago my back garden - wannabe entered the charts , and our amazing journey began.

A photo posted by Geri Horner (@therealgerihalliwell) on Jul 7, 2016 at 11:33pm PDT

To many young girls, Ginger Spice and rest of the Spice Girls were iconic representations of power and confidence. But Geri explains that the overwhelming fame and media scrutiny took a toll on their collective mental health. And for Halliwell, that meant developing an eating disorder.

Geri elaborated:

“I felt much more conscious of myself, my body weight… We all used different tools to get by, coping mechanisms. For me [it] was controlling my body weight.”

Photo of Geri HALLIWELL and SPICE GIRLS
Photo of Geri HALLIWELL and SPICE GIRLS

She became bulimic, as do two to three in 100 American women. And as is the case with many eating disorders, her bulimia stemmed from a need for control in a stressful situation. Geri explained how the purging inherent to the disorder makes the illness uniquely threatening to one’s health:

“I started being bulimic and no one would notice it because your body weight stays pretty much the same… It’s bloody dangerous.”

Thankfully, a 12-step program helped Geri overcome bulimia, and has allowed her to have a healthy relationship with food. A quick visit to her Instagram even shows her to be quite the baker.

Making crackle cakes

A photo posted by Geri Horner (@therealgerihalliwell) on Jun 1, 2016 at 10:09am PDT

Halliwell won U.K.’s Sports Relief Bake Off this year, too!

We are so happy that Geri recovered from her eating disorder, and we are so grateful that she is speaking openly about the mental health struggles faced by too many women.

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