RTE Tommy Tiernan Show viewers have praised former model Roz Purcell for dealing with probing questions about her eating disorder.
On Saturday night's show, the Tipperary native had a candid discussion about her own eating disorder after she opened up about her modelling days. Roz told host Tommy Tiernan about why she quit her modelling career as she was suffering from eating disorders which were taking a huge toll on her physical and mental health.
She explained that she had to "change her environment" to recover from the disorders so stopped modelling. However, the interview took a slightly awkward turn when host Tommy asked Roz to explain living with an eating disorder in more detail.
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Roz explained: "I was modelling around the world and I came back to Ireland. I was around the age of 24 and I knew I needed to heal from my eating disorder.
"A big part of me recovering was me definitely changing my environment, I knew I needed to stop modelling."
Tommy asked exactly what the eating disorder was, to which she replied: "My whole life revolved around what weight I was. From binge eating to bulimia to anorexia, I went through a period of different types of eating disorders over four or five years."
Roz added that at the time she was "completely controlled" by her eating disorder. "It was a huge part of me and the thoughts of giving it up felt like I was giving away a part of me."
Tommy then asked her to describe "the practicalities of an eating disorder – you wake up in the morning and what?"
Roz answered: "Your whole day revolves around food and what you are going to do to burn it off. I couldn’t have proper relationships.
"There couldn’t be anything else really going on in your life. Because everything revolved around punishing your body to be a certain size and certain weight."
Probing for more details, Tommy asked: "For your one, can you speak about the specifics about food? What would you have to eat? What would you have to do to burn it?"
But Roz didn't want to directly answer that question and told him: "I don’t know if I add any value to the conversation by discussing that, you know? There are going to be teenagers watching this who might try and emulate that."
"Isn’t that strange," said Tommy. There was an awkward pause before Roz replied: "That’s just how it happens. The only thing I will say is that I never thought I would get over it and I have."
The interview had an impact on viewers at home who were impressed by how Roz responded to Tommy's questions. One fan wrote on Twitter: "What an amazingly strong interview from Roz Purcell on Tommy Tiernan show tonight. Inspirationally raw and well able to deal with Tommy’s harsh questions."
"Roz did well. Fair play to her for being so diplomatic and considerate in her answers to very difficult questions about her past," a second tweeted. A third viewer said: "Some tough questions for Roz but she was very open about it all, fair play to her."
The Tommy Tiernan Show continues next Saturday night on RTE One.
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