Appearing on the Dr. Oz Show, Keaton revealed, “It was horrible. It was, of course, the lowest point of my life…I was a fat person, I was an obese person, who had somehow tricked myself and managed to hide it. So when you’re living with a lie for four years…” Explaining her battle with bulimia, she continued, “All I did was feed my hunger, so I am an addict. It’s true. I’m an addict in recovery, I’ll always be an addict. I have an addictive nature to me.”

Her insecurities were triggered at the very start of her career when she was teased with the lead in Hair, in exchange for her losing 10 pounds. The production also offered an extra $50 to the actors willing to strip down at the end of Act 1. Keaton refused.

To deal with the pressures, she ate, a lot. And then she threw up, emptying her stomach of everything she consumed.

Every dinner she would have 20,000 calories in the form of “a bucket of fried chicken, several orders of fries with blue cheese and ketchup, a couple of TV dinners, a quart of soda, pounds of candy, a whole cake, and three banana cream pies.”

Recognizing she had a problem, she met with a therapist five times a week over a year, to overcome the binge eating disorder.

“Now it’s (addiction) work orientated or trying to raise my children as best I can, even though they’re…not really children anymore,” said Keaton, of her adopted children.