Taylor Swift has revealed she would ‘starve a little bit’ after being ‘triggered’ by paparazzi pictures of her.
The 30-year-old’s documentary Miss Americana premiered on Thursday night at Sundance Film Festival, and in the film, she addresses battling an eating disorder during her career.
The Blank Space singer said that she was triggered by pictures of her stomach not looking entirely flat, and that she began to restrict her eating.
In a voiceover, Taylor admits: ‘It’s not good for me to see pictures of myself every day’, and says although she is not ‘proud of it’, she said there were times that if she saw ‘a picture of me where I looked like my tummy was too big, or … someone said that I looked pregnant … and that’ll just trigger me to just starve a little bit, just stop eating.’
The popstar continued: ‘I thought that I was supposed to feel like I was going to pass out at the end of the show, or in the middle of it.
‘Now, I realise, no, if you eat food, have energy, get stronger, you can do all these shows and not feel [drained]’.
Speaking before the premiere in an interview with Variety, Taylor discussed her experience with eating disorders.
She said: ‘I didn’t know if I was going to feel comfortable with talking about body image and talking about the stuff I’ve gone through in terms of how unhealthy that’s been for me.
‘But the way that Lana [Wilson, the director] tells the story it really makes sense. I’m not as articulate as I should be about this topic because there are so many people who could talk about it in a better way. But all I know is my own experience.
‘And my relationship with food was exactly the same psychology that I applied to everything else in my life: If I was given a pat on the head, I registered that as good. If I was given a punishment, I registered that as bad.’
Taylor said that she has now reconciled ‘the fact that I’m a size six instead of a size double-zero’.
Elsewhere in Miss Americana, the Grammy award winner’s conflicted feelings about talking about politics are laid bare, as she clashes with her father and her team over her desire to speak out about anti-LGBTQ+ policies.
The film also touches on the infamous ‘Imma let you finish moment’ at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, when Kanye West interrupted her speech to proclaim Beyonce should have won the award.
Miss Americana hits Netflix on 31 January.
BEAT
If you suspect you, a family member or friend has an eating disorder, contact Beat on 0808 801 0677 or at help@beateatingdisorders.org.uk, for information and advice on the best way to get appropriate treatment
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