Keira Knightley. David M. Benett/Hoda Davaine/Dave Benett/WireImage
Keira Knightley struggled with speculation that she was suffering from an eating disorder during the early days of her career.
“I knew I wasn’t. I knew I was eating. In that classic trauma way I don’t remember it,” Knightley, 39, shared in a recent interview with The Times of London. “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 it.”
Beginning her acting career in the late ‘90s, Knightley became a household name in the early 2000s for her modeling career and roles in Bend It Like Beckham, the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, Love Actually and Pride and Prejudice. In 2018, however, Knightley told The Hollywood Reporter‘s “Awards Chatter” podcast that she suffered a “mental breakdown” at age 22 due to the overwhelming nature of her worldwide fame and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. It was with the help of loved ones and therapy that helped her push through.
“The unbelievably lucky thing was I come from an incredibly loving background and I always had really nice boyfriends. I had lovely, lovely boyfriends,” she said particularly of her past romances. (The U.K. native dated Jamie Dornan and then Rupert Friend before tying the knot with her husband, James Righton, in 2013.)
Around the same time Knightley dealt with her own eating disorder rumors, Mary-Kate Olsen sought out treatment for anorexia in 2004. “I remember viscerally one of the Olsen twins had anorexia, and she went into a clinic,” Knightley told The Times of London. “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?”
Tearing up, she continued: “That made me really emotional. That’s not even about me, it’s about her. I still can’t bear it.”
Keira Knightley, 2006. Patrick Catler/Avalon/Getty Images
Knightley previously shut down rumors that she was diagnosed with anorexia while promoting Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest in 2006. “I’ve got a lot of experience with anorexia — my grandmother and great-grandmother suffered from it, and I had a lot of friends at school who suffered from it,” she said at the time, per CBS News. “I know it’s not something to be taken lightly and I don’t.”
She added: “[I was asked] yesterday, ‘How does it feel to be called anorexic?’ and I had no idea that I was. I’m not saying there aren’t people in the film industry that suffer from it, because I am sure that there are. But I’m quite sure I don’t have it.”
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In recent years, Knightley has continued to act in projects such as Colette, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Boston Strangler and The Sound Collector, but has picked roles that fit into her life as a mother to her and Righton’s two daughters — Edie, 9, and Delilah, 5.
“I couldn’t go job to job [abroad] now. It wouldn’t be in any way fair on them, and I wouldn’t want to,” Knightley, whose new series Black Doves hits Netflix next month, told The Times of London. “I’ve chosen to have children, I want to bring them up, so I’ve had to take a major step back.”
If you or someone you know struggles with an eating disorder, visit the National Alliance for Eating Disorders website or call their hotline at +1 (866) 662-1235. Text “ALLIANCE” to 741741 for free, 24/7 support.
