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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Entertainment
Gemma Jones

Christine McGuinness shares her struggle as she 'barely ate' at height of anorexia battle

Christine McGuinness has revealed her struggles at the height of her battle with an eating disorder.

As a teenager, the mum-of-three would survive on a tiny, self-imposed calorie allowance every day as she lived with anorexia.

The former pageant queen, who is married to Paddy McGuinness, was working as a dancer in Paris when she claims the only food she would consume would be a Cup-A-Soup every other day.

READ MORE: Christine McGuinness' holiday horror after Paddy's Dirty Dancing fail

But in spite of her unhealthy relationship with food, Christine looks back at her time in Paris as 'one of the happiest' times of her life.

Looking back at her time there, she said: "The only thing that got slightly out of control was my eating disorder. No one was keeping an eye on me, so I barely ate.

"I was dancing and burning a lot of calories, and I never took a dinner break.

"It was easy for me to get away with not eating, because no one was watching me.

"I’d have a Cup-a-Soup every other day and that was it. Nothing else, bar loads of water."

She added: "So, it wasn’t great for my health, but it was one of the happiest times of my life."

In her book, A Beautiful Nightmare, which is a memoir of her life, Christine claimed that life in Paris was 'addictive'.

She said: "I was making so much in terms of tips. The dancing did so much for my confidence, too.

"I’d taken ownership of my sexuality. No one was touching me and I was earning my own money – cash that went straight into my bank or back home to my mum.

"The modelling industry is fickle and you’d get picked apart if you’d put a bit of weight on, or your hair wasn’t quite right.

"But dancing in the club was the complete opposite. I was in a place where I loved the music playing every night and I was working with a bunch of girls that I got on with and I was earning amazing money, and again, no one was touching me.”

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