The Anatomy of a Secret: Inside Diane Keaton’s Years-Long Battle with Bulimia

Diane Keaton’s death at 79 has brought renewed attention to one of the most harrowing secrets she ever kept: a years-long, all-consuming battle with bulimia. Her later-life confessions provide a chilling anatomy of the secret life she led while ascending to the heights of Hollywood stardom.
The secret began with an external trigger—a command to lose weight for a role—but it quickly grew into an internal monster. Keaton described it as an “addiction,” a constant, gnawing hunger that was psychological, not physical. This hunger drove her to lead a double life.
The anatomy of her secret life involved elaborate rituals of binging. She detailed the components of a “typical dinner” with shocking precision: a bucket of chicken, fries with blue cheese and ketchup, TV dinners, soda, candy, a whole cake, and multiple pies. This wasn’t just overeating; it was a structured, compulsive act that reached an astonishing 20,000 calories a day.
Keeping this secret required immense energy and isolation. While the world saw a confident, rising star, Keaton was privately trapped in a cycle of binging and purging, a reality hidden from even her closest friends and colleagues for a time.
The secret was finally dismantled through another private act: seeking therapy. Her commitment to five-day-a-week analysis was the beginning of her liberation. By eventually speaking about it, she destroyed the secret completely, turning a story of private shame into a public testament of survival.