Gena Lee Nolin’s Eating Disorder Battle While on ‘Baywatch'

Actress Gena Lee Nolin joins The Doctors to open up about her personal struggles with aging and body issues -- including an eating disorder she battled while appearing on the small screen.

"Being on TV was an enormous amount of pressure for me," Gena shares, explaining she first began to feel the need to stay thin while she worked as a Barker Beauty on the game show "The Price is Right." 

She reveals, "I wouldn't eat. [I had] maybe 1 meal in a week." The actress says she would often pretend to eat while in the company of others. She was then cast on "Baywatch," where she felt pressure to maintain her figure. "I barely ate," she says, explaining that going without food was followed by binge eating and then Gena says she would starve herself to lose weight again.

"It was a vicious cycle. Looking back, I realize how sick I was. I had an eating disorder," she tells The Doctors. Her eating disorder struggles lasted until she was 37, and now she is nearly 50 and says she is a great place. "I've never felt sexier than I do now." 

Gena says she has worked hard to move past the idea of what is deemed "sexy" for specific age groups, along with the notion that someone cannot feel sexy past a certain age. She is now focused on self-acceptance, feeling confident in her body, and cherishing her experiences. "I'm trying to embrace everything that comes along with aging."

Speaking about her eating disorder, the actress shares, "I went to extremes to hide the fact that I was starving myself." She is happy to share that after working on herself, she is now feeling healthy. "I embrace the fact that I'm not a certain number on the scale, and that's okay," she says.

Find out why Gena says she is holding off on having plastic surgery for the time being and what she is doing instead, in the video below.

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