At one point her weight had plummeted to an astonishing 82 lbs and ten years later Ally McBeal actress Portia De Rossi is revealing how the vicious cycle of starving herself and then binging and purging almost killed her.
But in a romantic twist to her fairytale ending, the 37-year-old claims it was meeting her wife, Ellen Degeneres, in March 2001 that cured her of her low self esteem issues and subsequently saved her life.
In her new memoir, Unbearable Lightness, Portia chronicles her spiral into anorexia and bulimia which started when she moved from her native Australia to Hollywood and landed a role on Ally McBeal.
'I'd never known a day when my weight wasn't the determining factor for my self esteem,' she says in the book.
'The more effort I put into starving myself, the more satisfaction I would feel.'
At her lowest point the actress survived on 150 calories a day, took up to 20 laxatives and worked out for hours on end - resulting in her five foot eight inch frame being reduced to a mere 82lbs.
She collapsed on the set of the film Who Is Cletis Tout? in 2001 and was told she was suffering from Oesteoperosis, cirrhosis of the liver, organ failure and the auto-immune disease lupus.
The actress began to eat after her multiple diagnosis but swung into a phase of compulsive eating, gaining 85 lbs in a year.
And then she met Ellen.
The pair were introduced at concert for Rock The Vote in March 2001 and De Rossi admitted she was instantly smitten.
'I remember being so excited and overjoyed to be around her that i can still recall the feeling of running after her back stage.'
Ellen, 52, and Portia married on August 16th 2008 in a private ceremony at the talk show host's Beverly Hills home.
'Ellen has taught me not to care about other people's opinions,' she said.
'Ellen saw a glimpse of my inner being from underneath the flesh and bone, reached in and pulled me out.'
Portia De Rossi reveals how Ellen DeGeneres cured her of the eating disorder that almost killed her | Mail Online
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