Facing the past. Laura Prepon revealed that her mother, Marjorie Prepon, was her eating disorder partner growing up.
“My mother taught me bulimia,” Laura, 40, said in her new guide for moms, You & I, as Mothers: A Raw and Honest Guide to Motherhood, via People. “It started when I was 15 and lasted until my late twenties.”
The Orange Is the New Black alum admitted that after being “a healthy athletic kid” at the age of 15, she was told to lose 25 pounds when attending an open casting call at a modeling agency.
At that point, the New Jersey native decided to focus on her weight loss — she eventually weighed 105 pounds — and when she told her mom about the plan it became “their shared project.”
“That’s when she told me, ‘You can have your cake and eat it too,’” she said per the outlet. “I knew exactly what she was talking about.”
The That ‘70s Show alum admitted that “it was a bonding thing we would do together,” calling the activity a “shared secret.”
“I always thought of myself as this strong, confident woman,” Laura revealed. “But it became a compulsion that would completely debilitate me.”
Looking back at the phase of her life, the mother of two discovered that her mother genuinely thought being thin would help her in her career, based on the era she was raised in.
“She was bulimic in college and after she lost weight, she met my father,” the actress explained. “So to her, being thin equaled success.”
She added: “I think she was trying to help me in her own way.”
The New York Times bestselling author decided to share her eating disorder past in her new guide for moms in order to be honest with her readers and help them connect to her and her journey.
“Healing meant learning about my own body especially when I wanted to have children,” Laura said.
The Girl on the Train star shares daughter Ella, 3, and a son, who was born in February, with husband Ben Foster.
You and I, as Mothers is available on April 7.
If you or someone you know is battling an eating disorder, contact the National Eating Disorders Association at 1-800-931-2237.
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