Tallulah Willis gets candid about ‘romanticising’ eating disorder

Tallulah Willis got vulnerable in a candid post about “romanticising” her eating disorder.

In an Instagram post shared on Wednesday, the daughter of Hollywood actors Demi Moore and Bruce Willis wrote about her eating disorder diagnosis and how she often found herself “romanticizing unhealthy times.”

She began the post by writing that she was “sending love” to her fellow “ED recovery babies.” The caption accompanied a photo carousel of Tallulah when she was younger.

“I’m having an [intense] moment of romanticising unhealthy times and how it felt to move through the day in that size body,” she shared. “Just wanted to voice it because I know (hope) I’m not alone.”

She added, “This little raggymuffin is so special and it’s strange to know that and want to give her abundance and vitality - LIFE! whilst at the EXACT same moment feeling pulled by an old desire, deep down from the pit spot in your belly, to compare to the ‘better’ version of me. AND it’s ok to be in the middle of the messy and not totally have it all sorted yet.”

In her comment section, Tallulah’s vulnerable words were met with a flood of support. Her sister Rumer commended her resilient spirit, commenting: “You are magic, your truth is so vital and I’m so lucky to be your sister.”

“You’re so wise and beautiful inside out,” supermodel Helena Christensen wrote, while Ewan McGregor’s daughter Esther commented: “Thank you for this. Truly a thought that consumes more people than we know.”

In a November 2023 on The Drew Barrymore Show, Tallulah explained to Barrymore why she decided to speak openly about her eating disorder.

“I felt like the things that had occurred in more recent years,” she told Barrymore. “I very visibly was struggling with an eating disorder and because of the age of social media and that was very present and there was actually a tremendous amount of concern for me that I got on my Instagram.

She added, “As I’m early in recovery in that, it’s interesting to talk about it because I don’t know if I had my full footing, I’m just trying every day.”

“I wanted to talk about that because I felt like it was really important to share that it was very scary, that it was really hard,” she continued.

In a personal essay written for Vogue’s 2023 May issue, Tallulah revealed that she had been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, and had been suffering from the disorder for the past four years. According to John Hopkins Medicine, the disorder causes a severe and strong fear of gaining weight that may result in those afflicted having a distorted perception of themselves, believing that they’re fat even though they may be dangerously thin.

Tallulah admitted that her issues arose after she’d been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as well as borderline personality disorder. The former diagnosis came at the age of 25, and she was prescribed a medication that came with “appetite-​suppressant side effect.”

“There’s an unhealthy deliciousness at the beginning of losing weight rapidly,” she wrote of her experience. “People are like, ‘Oh wow!’ And then quickly it turns to, ‘Are you okay?’ My friends and family were terrified, and I dismissed it.”

In 2022, her family reportedly “stepped in,” and a rehabilitation center called Driftwood Recovery in Texas. While there, Tallulah wrote that she was able to focus on her recovery without any external distractions or influences.