In the late sixties, Diane Keaton was the "it" girl of a certain kind of intellectual cool. She had that nervous, layered style that defined a generation. But honestly, behind the turtlenecks and the oversized blazers, there was a literal hunger that wouldn't quit. Diane Keaton bulimia wasn't just a phase; it was a grueling, five-year cycle of consumption and purging that nearly hollowed her out before she ever became Annie Hall.
She once told Dr. Oz that she was an "addict." Not to drugs, but to the ritual of the binge. We're talking 20,000 calories a day. It’s hard to even wrap your head around that number, right? But for Keaton, it was just Tuesday.
The Broadway ultimatum that started it all
It started with a job. Or rather, the promise of one. Back in 1968, Keaton was 19 and trying to make it in the Broadway production of Hair. She weighed about 140 pounds—totally healthy for her 5’7” frame. But the director told her she could have the lead if she lost ten pounds.
She did it. She lost the weight. But the cost was a mental break that lasted half a decade.
Basically, she discovered "the trick." That’s what she called it because, in 1968, the word "bulimia" wasn't even in the public lexicon. It was just this secret, dark magic she could perform to stay thin while eating everything in sight.
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She’d go home to her apartment and haul up massive brown paper bags full of food. We're talking a bucket of fried chicken, several orders of fries slathered in blue cheese and ketchup, a quart of soda, pounds of candy, a whole cake, and—somehow—three banana cream pies. All in one sitting. Then, she’d head to the bathroom with a box of baking soda and "the trick."
Living a double life with Woody Allen
The weirdest part? She was dating Woody Allen during the peak of this. They were together, going to $400 dinners at high-end New York restaurants, and he had no clue.
"I was a master at hiding," she told People. "You live a lifestyle that is very strange. You're living a lie."
Woody famously joked later that if he’d known she was throwing it all up, he could have just taken her to Pizza Hut. It sounds like a classic Woody line, and Diane laughed along when he said it at her Lifetime Achievement Award gala. But the reality was "sick and creepy," in her own words. She spent up to six hours a day just "processing" food. Breakfast took an hour, lunch took two, and dinner took three. It wasn't a lifestyle; it was a full-time job.
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The physical toll nobody saw
You can't do that to your body for five years without things breaking. During one visit to the dentist, they found 26 cavities. Twenty-six. The stomach acid was literally melting her teeth. She had to get them all capped.
She also struggled with skin cancer—basal cell carcinoma—starting at age 21. While not directly linked to the eating disorder, it added to a sense of physical fragility. Her signature hats and long sleeves weren't just a "look" initially; they were armor.
How the "talking cure" actually worked
Keaton finally hit a wall. She realized she couldn't keep the secret anymore. She started seeing a female psychoanalyst five days a week. For a full year of that therapy, she still didn't mention the bulimia. She talked about everything else. Her mother, her father, her insecurities.
Then, one day, she just blurted it out. "I stick my finger down my throat three times a day."
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She calls it the "talking cure." Once the secret was out in the open, it lost its power over her. She realized she didn't want to be an "obese person" (her words for how she felt inside) who was tricking the world.
Why she spoke out decades later
Keaton didn't go public with this until her 2011 memoir, Then Again. Why wait? Honestly, it’s about the shame. Even for an Oscar winner, admitting you spent your twenties over a toilet is hard. But she felt a responsibility to the "sisterhood" of women—and men—who are still in that darkness.
She views herself as an addict in recovery. Even at 79, she was candid about the fact that the hunger—the "wanting too much"—doesn't just disappear. You just learn how to live with the hole without trying to fill it with cake and fried chicken.
Actionable insights for recovery and support
If Diane Keaton’s story hits a little too close to home, there are specific takeaways from her journey that experts still point to today:
- Break the silence immediately: Keaton’s recovery didn't actually start until she said the words out loud to another human being. Keeping the secret is the fuel for the disorder.
- Seek "Depth-Oriented" therapy: She didn't just go to a nutritionist; she went to a psychoanalyst to figure out why she felt "maladjusted to life." Addressing the underlying "vast hole" is key.
- Acknowledge the addiction: Treating an eating disorder with the same gravity as chemical dependency can help in understanding the "relapse" mindset and the need for long-term vigilance.
- Forgive the younger version of yourself: Keaton speaks about her younger self with a mix of pity and honesty. She doesn't glamorize the "skinny" years because she knows they were built on a lie.
The legacy of Diane Keaton isn't just The Godfather or those iconic suits. It's the fact that she survived a "mental illness" (her words) at a time when nobody even had a name for it. She proved that you can be "sick and creepy" at twenty and still become a legend by seventy.