Eating disorder still affects me, admits Imrie

CALENDAR GIRLS star Celia Imrie has said she still struggles with food after suffering an eating disorder in her teens.

The 66-year-old restricted what she ate after being told she was too big to become a dancer, and was admitted to hospital at 14, weighing four stone.

At St Thomas’s Hospital in London, she was treated by psychiatrist William Sargant, who would use electroconvulsive therapy on his patients.

Imrie said it “wouldn’t be allowed now”, and was “absolutely vile”. She added: “I remember him with the face of a devil. There is a part of me that is still inside, fighting.”

Imrie said she still does not like to eat in front of other people and, when on her own, is strict with herself.

She said: “It goes on and on. I mean, I pretend it doesn’t but it sort of does. You just live with it.”

She joked about getting scripts for much older women – including for a 142-year-old woman. She said: I’m thinking, blimey, how old do people think I am? I think I’m still 26.”