Nicole Scherzinger Is the Latest Star to Admit to an Eating Disorder, But Likely Not the Last

Apparently, in a Behind the Music special airing on VH1 this Sunday, 34-year-old singer Nicole Scherzinger — of Eden’s Crush, the Pussycat Dolls and X Factor — confesses that she spent years suffering from an eating disorder.

As Radar reports, Scherzinger says:

It’s embarrassing. I never spoke about it. Like I said, I never want to play a victim, and I never wanted my family to hear about things from me because I think it would break their heart, you know… I guess it was like my addiction, right? I never did drugs, but kinda doing things to myself was my addiction. It’s like when I got off stage, I was on this high, and I’d come back to my room and I’d be alone, so I would just do things. My bulimia was my addiction; hurting myself was my addiction.

She also notes that her disorder was severe:

I did it every day for, like, years. Every time I had a second to be alone, I was doing something to myself. You get, like, blisters on your hands or scars on your hands, and I’d try to hide those. I think the girls could tell.

“Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me” seems tragic in a whole new way.

Scherzinger is the third celeb in the past few weeks to disclose an eating disorder. In late September, while interviewing Demi Lovato — who went to a rehab for her own eating disorder — Katie Couric admitted: “I wrestled with bulimia all through college, and for two years after that.” After being called “fat” and “meaty” in US and UK headlines, Lady Gaga replied with a unretouched photos and the statement: “Bulimia and anorexia since I was 15.”

Chances are, more and more celebrities will admit to eating disorders. Not because it’s trendy now, but because eating disorders develop, all the time, to men and women, and hiding the truth doesn’t help anyone. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, only 1 in 10 men and women with eating disorders receive treatment, and 95% of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25. These admissions are good: For young fans to understand that idols are actually human beings and for the celebs themselves, since being open is part of the healing.