Plus-size model Tess Holliday reveals ‘confusion and anger’ at anorexia diagnosis

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Plus-size model Tess Holliday has shared that she was left ‘confused’ and ‘angry’ after doctors diagnosed her with having anorexia as she joined today’s Good Morning Britain.

The 35-year-old blogger joined Susanna Reid and Ben Shephard on the ITV daytime show where she discussed being in recovery from the eating disorder.

‘I thought I knew my body really well, so to hear my diagnosis was really jarring,’ Tess said.

‘Typically, in media we’ve been presented with folks who are extremely underweight, but that’s partly why I had no idea I could struggle with anorexia.

‘That’s part of why I wanted to share my story, because I know my body very well, I knew myself very well, so to hear that I could be living in a larger body and struggling with a disorder that’s been presented differently really threw my through a loop.

I figured other people are dealing with the same thing.’

Symptoms of anorexia include losing a lot of weight or keeping your weight much lower than what is healthy for your age and weight, missing meals, exercising excessively, lying about what you have eaten and experiencing fear about your weight.

Tess explained her diagnosis and said eating disorders can affect people of every size.

‘Sometimes I would go an entire day without eating anything and I was hungry, I knew I was hungry,’ she continued. ‘In a way, I think I wore it as a badge of honour, that I was this person in a larger body not eating.’

Earlier this month, Tess shared her anorexia diagnosis on Twitter as she urged people not to comment on her ‘weight or perceived health’.

She tweeted: ‘I’m anorexic & in recovery. I’m not ashamed to say it out loud anymore. I’m the result of a culture that celebrates thinness & equates that to worth, but I get to write my own narrative now. I’m finally able to care for a body that I’ve punished my entire life & I am finally free.’

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV.