Keira Knightley Says She Suffered ‘Classic Trauma’ From Eating Disorder Rumors

Keira Knightley says she’s still deeply affected by the tabloid rumors surrounding her body.
The Oscar-nominated actor was only 17 years old when her breakout role in “Bend It Like Beckham” (2002) led to a star-making turn in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, and is now candidly recalling how the resulting media attention affected her mental health.
In an interview published Saturday about past reports that she suffered from an eating disorder, Knightley, now 39, told The Times, “I knew I wasn’t, I knew I was eating.”
“In that classic trauma way I don’t remember it,” she added about that period of her life. “There’s been a complete delete, and then some things will come up and I’ll suddenly have a very bodily memory of it because, ultimately, it’s public shaming, isn’t it?”
Knightley won a libel suit against The Daily Mail in 2007 after the paper suggested her thinness had contributed to the death of a 19-year-old who had anorexia.
“I remember viscerally one of the Olsen twins had anorexia, and she went into a clinic,” Knightley told the Times. “I remember being asked about it on a press tour, like it was a joke. She was meant to be shamed for seeking help for anorexia.”
“Can you imagine? That made me really emotional. That’s not even about me, it’s about her. I still can’t bear it,” Knightley said.
The acclaimed actor has previously shared that under the pressure of public scrutiny and being hounded by the tabloids, she had a mental health crisis at 22. She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and took a year hiatus from acting at the time.
Knightley now balances her acting career with her family life. She married musician James Righton in 2013, became a mother in 2015, and has been raising their daughters Edie, 9, and Delilah, 5, between acting jobs.
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The actor told The Times she recently had a weekend to herself and planned to walk “really, really far” to “go and eat noodles,” and enjoyed binge-watching Disney+’s black comedy period drama “Rivals.”
“I thought they were all brilliant,” she added of the actors in the series. “The bonking is extraordinary.”