Keira Knightley Slams Media's Mockery of Eating Disorders During Height of Her Career: 'It's Public Shaming'
Keira Knightley opened up about the intense scrutiny she faced when she first stepped into the spotlight.
The 39-year-old British actress was in the center of rumors suggesting she suffered from an eating disorder, despite saying that she maintained a healthy relationship with food, the relentless focus on her physical appearance inflicted "trauma."
Knightley told The UK Times, "In that classic trauma way I don't remember it."
"There's been a complete delete, and then some things will come up and I'll suddenly have a very bodily memory of it because, ultimately, it's public shaming, isn't it? It's obviously part of my psyche, given how young I was when it happened. I've been made around."
Knightley discussed how much more open conversations about mental health are today compared to the early 2000s. She reminisced about a time when celebrities, like Mary-Kate Olsen, faced intense judgment for seeking help.
She went on, "I remember viscerally one of the Olsen twins had anorexia, and she went into a clinic."
"I remember being asked about it on a press tour, like it was a joke. She was meant to be shamed for seeking help for anorexia. I remember sitting there just being like, 'Wow, this is wild.'"
"Can you imagine?" the "Bend It Like Beckham" actress continued. "That made me really emotional. That's not even about me, it's about her. I still can't bear it."
In spite of facing criticism from the media during her twenties, Knightley mentioned the importance of her strong support network, sharing, "The unbelievably lucky thing was I come from an incredibly loving background and I always had really nice boyfriends. I had lovely, lovely boyfriends."
Back in October of 2018, the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star disclosed for the first time the experience of a "mental breakdown" she went through at 22 years old, just after achieving global recognition from her roles in various films and attributed to the demands of her early stardom that had impacted her.
"I felt pretty much like actually I didn't exist and I was this weird creature with this weird face that people seemed to respond to in quite an extreme way, and I couldn't quite figure any of it out."
In another interview with Harper's Bazaar UK in 2023, the Brit reflected on her immediate rise to stardom as a teenager and the challenges she faced in meeting the lofty expectations placed upon her.
"There's a funny place where women are meant to sit, publicly, and I never felt comfortable with that. It was a big jolt."
