Kerry Washington Opens Up About Her Eating Disorder — Talks Praying to Higher Power for Help

Actress 🎬Kerry Washington opened up about battling an eating disorder and calling out to a high power for help.

In an interview with Robin Roberts for a “20/20” special airing Sunday, Washington, 46, got candid about dealing with an eating disorder in college. She also detailed this struggle in her new memoir, “Thicker Than Water,” set to be released on Sept. 26.

In the book, she revealed her relationship with food and her body “became a toxic cycle of self-abuse that utilized the tools of starvation, binge eating, body obsession, and compulsive exercise.”

“The first thing that put me on my knees — like the first time I got on my knees and prayed to some power greater than myself to say like, ‘I can’t do this, I need some help’ — was with my eating disorder,” the “Scandal” star recalled.

Washington also explained how good she was at hiding the disorder at the time.

She shared:

“I was good at performing perfect. I was good at control. I could party all night and drink and smoke and have sex and still show up and have good grades. I knew how to manage; I was so high-functioning and the food took me out. The body-dysmorphia, the body-hatred, it was beyond my control and really led me to feeling like, ‘I need help for somebody, or something, bigger than me because I’m in trouble and I don’t know how to live with this.’” 

As a result, she contemplated taking her own life.

“I could feel how the abuse was a way to really hurt myself, as if I didn’t want to be here,” Washington said. “It scared me that I could not want to be here because I was in so much pain.”