EXCLUSIVE: After Yvie's weigh-in protest on I'm a Celeb, Angie has shared her history of bulimia.

Content warning: This post mentions themes of eating disorders and mental health some readers may find triggering. Please call the Butterfly Foundation on 1800 33 4673 or Lifeline on 13 11 14 if you or someone you know needs assistance.

When Yvie Jones refused to be weighed on Sunday night’s episode of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here, her former Gogglebox co-star averted her eyes as tears started to run down her face.

“I’ve had an eating disorder most of my life,” Yvie said. “I grew up in a house where I was told one of the worst things to be was overweight.”

“I wish we lived in a different world…” she continued, “…where what we looked like doesn’t matter.”

“I feel like we’ve all been doing so well, and now we’re going to celebrate how much weight we’ve lost and how that’s something to be proud of. I don’t think it is something to be proud of,” she said.

It was a moment that struck a chord with viewers all over Australia, as well as several of Yvie’s camp mates.

Now, Mamamia can exclusively share that on tonight’s episode of I’m a Celebrity, Yvie’s long time friend Angie Kent opens up about her own experience with bulimia.

Watch a clip of their conversation below. Post continues after video. 

In a conversation with Richard Reid, Angie recalled a time when she had a “dreadful eating disorder”.

“It lasted for ages,” she said. “I only just started talking about it three years ago.”

“It’s so sad because you do get judged for stuff like that. People think you’re doing it for attention or, they think you can snap out of it. But it’s like an addiction. It’s like being an alcoholic or a drug addict, you’re addicted to that part of your life because that’s the only part of your life you can control…

“Most of it doesn’t even come from wanting to be skinny. It can be like, you have really bad skin, or you become obsessed with something because it’s going to be good for your body, and then you get so obsessed you don’t eat anything else. And then you get obsessed with getting skinny from it, and then that’s how it starts.”

Angie said her parents didn’t know at the time, and to this day, she’s never spoken to her dad about that part of her life.

“It’s awful,” she said. “And it never goes away. You still always have it a little bit. The thoughts. But I know how to control it now because I’m very much into my mindfulness meditation.”

It’s estimated that over 16 per cent of the Australian population are affected by eating disorders or (sub-clinical) disordered eating. While we commonly hear about anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa in popular culture, these conditions are far less common than binge eating disorder, or other specified feeding or eating disorders which don’t fit into a clear-cut category.

Recent research suggests eating disorder behaviour is on the rise in Australia.

For help and support for eating disorders, contact the Butterfly Foundation‘s National Support line and online service on 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673) or email atsupport@thebutterflyfoundation.org.au. You can also visit their website, here.  

If you’re suffering from depression or anxiety and need help, or just someone to chat to, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or BeyondBlue on 1300 22 4636.