STRICTLY Come Dancing’s Dianne Buswell has revealed she was at risk of having a heart attack after developing a secret battle with bulimia.
The professional dancer, 32, replaced meals with fluids while working on a cruise ship and underwent enforced weigh-ins once a week.
Dianne Buswell has opened up about her secret battle with bulimiaCredit: BBC
The Strictly pro was warned she could have a heart attackCredit: Rex
If the scales did ever creep up, Dianne would be given a ‘Weight Warning’.
Opening up on BBC1’s Freeze The Fear with Wim Hof, she told her horrified co-stars: “I worked on a cruise ship for quite a while. It’s tricky, because as a dancer you get weighed.
“We got weighed every week and had a thing called a WW, which was a Weight Warning. I had two of them in my time and I weighed two more kilos than I do now.
“I would have a bit of spinach and would watch all the other girls and they would be the same – you just wouldn’t eat.”
Dianne said she would check daily whether her fellow dancers had been to the gym and what they had consumed.
“I went through one point where I just wouldn’t eat, so I just had like a drink for my lunch and a drink for my dinner,” she continued.
“I got really sick. I had nothing. If I did have some food, I would make myself sick because I wouldn’t want it in me.”
Speaking to the camera, Dianne – who is dating her former Strictly partner Joe Sugg – went on to explain her battle with the eating disorder in more depth.
She said: “I adore dancing but, I guess, as I became more successful, the pressures also grew.
“That can really spiral you into this awful self-doubt and the pressure of that makes you do crazy things. You’re constantly checking your weight, you’re thinking, ‘I need to be a certain way and I need to look a certain way’.
“I definitely took the body image thing to an unhealthy level. It had come to a point where I couldn’t go any further. I was passing out on the side of the stage, my body almost felt like it was starting to shut down.”
Dianne revealed that she went to a doctor and underwent tests before being given a stalk warning about her future.
“They said my heart was under so much pressure that I could have a heart attack,” she said.
Dianne, who has appeared on Strictly Come Dancing since 2017, thankfully sought help with eating disorder experts.
She has got a strong grip on it now, but admits she will never be truly free from the disease.
“There is still that slight voice in the back of my head – I don’t think it fully ever 100 per cent goes away – but it’s the way I deal with it now that is so much stronger and healthier and better for me,” she said.
Freeze The Fear fans were saddened to hear Dianne open up about her bulimia battle, with one tweeting: “Dianne you absolute babe. glad she’s doing so much better.”
Another added: “This is so sad for Dianne.”
- For support with an eating disorder, contact SEED on [email protected]charity, call 01482 718130 or visit Seed.charity.
Dianne spoke about her eating disorder battle on Freeze The Fear with Wim Hof
She admits she will never be ‘100 per cent’ curedCredit: Splash
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