Sophie Grégoire Trudeau Shares Her Former Struggle With Bulimia | HuffPost

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"I remember feeling ashamed."

Chloe Tejada— The Huffington Post Canada

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau has opened up about her former struggle with bulimia.

Speaking at an event on Parliament Hill in Ottawa for Eating Disorder Awareness Week on Feb. 2, the prime minister's wife discussed how she used to ask herself why she used to suffer from the eating disorder, Global News reports.

"I remember feeling ashamed, thinking, 'Why am I suffering from this?' On the surface I had it all," she told the audience. "I kept reading about what it was to be a bulimic and saying, 'This is the last time I’m doing this to myself.' I started to tremble because of too much binging and purging and thinking, 'What is this?'"

Fortunately for the mom of three, Grégoire Trudeau said she had a lot of support from family and friends, and she revealed that talking about her experience — one that is all too common among young women — led to other sufferers of the eating disorder to open up about their health.

"The moment I started sharing my story, obviously I had begun on my road to recovery, the response and the people who were opening up towards their own struggles to me and to other people around them was the most beautiful gift I’ve ever received," the 41-year-old said.

The mental health advocate also noted that more work on combating eating disorders needs to happen.

"We know what we’ve got to do. Now we really have to start taking it even more seriously and doing it."

She also shared a message about the importance of talking about eating disorders on her Facebook page.

"Eating disorders are not a choice. They are not capricious episodes. They are so real, and they take away lives," she wrote. "This Eating Disorders Awareness Week, let’s share our stories, our struggles, and our truths. Only then can we break the silence, solitude, and isolation that takes away too many of our sisters, our daughters, and our friends. I was honoured to join NIED today to share my own story & support those who are working hard to fight these disorders. #EDAW2017"

According to Statistics Canada, bulimia nervosa predominantly affects females — about 90 per cent of cases. Approximately one to three per cent of young women develop bulimia in their lifetime.

Bulimia is characterized by cycles of binge eating followed by purging.

To watch Sophie's full speech, check out the video above.

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Stars Who've Battled Eating Disorders

Demi Lovato(01 of16)

Demi Lovato has been very open about her struggles with bulimia and the extensive treatment she went through. "I was compulsively overeating when I was eight years old. So I guess for the past 10 years, I've had a really unhealthy relationship with food," she told ABC's "20/20" in 2010. Lovato has credited her younger sister and her fans with motivating her to seek treatment. (credit:Getty)

Amanda Bynes(02 of16)

Amanda Bynes has a rocky relationship with the press, but she still hasn't shied away from tweeting about her struggles with food. "I have an eating disorder so I have a hard time staying thin," she tweeted in April 2013. In response to unflattering photos that had been published of her and a friend, Bynes later added: "We look awful, I look fat in that photo you chose, which doesn't help my eating disorder." (credit:BuzzFoto)

Lady Gaga(03 of16)

Gaga first spoke of her experiences with bulimia in February 2012 in an interview with Maria Shriver at a Los Angeles conference, saying "I used to throw up all the time in high school. So I’m not that confident. I wanted to be a skinny little ballerina but I was a voluptuous little Italian girl," the New York Post reported at the time. After a number of media outlets scrutinized her weight during a 2012 European tour she took to her website, LittleMonsters.com, to reveal she still struggles with bulimia and anorexia. She announced the launch of an online forum she's calling the "Body Revolution" to help herself and others "triumph over insecurities," she wrote. (credit:Getty Images)

Jessica Alba(04 of16)

In 2005, actress Jessica Alba told Glamour, "A lot of girls have eating disorders, and I did too. I got obsessed with it. When I went from a girl's body to a woman's body with natural fat in places, I freaked out. It makes you feel weird, like you're not ready for that body." (credit:Getty Images)

Victoria Beckham(05 of16)

In her 2005 memoir, "Learning To Fly," Beckham revealed that she suffered from an eating disorder during her early "Spice Girls" years. Pressure from the group's management led the singer to struggle with extreme dieting and binging. "In the gym, instead of checking my posture or position, I was checking the size of my bottom, or to see if my double chin was getting any smaller," she wrote. (credit:Getty)

Lindsay Lohan(06 of16)

In 2006 after the public watched her shrink before their eyes, actress Lindsay Lohan confessed to Vanity Fair that she was "making herself sick," which many took as a reference to bulimia. She told the magazine that Tina Fed and SNL producer Lorne Michaels staged an intervention telling her she needed to take care of herself. (credit:Getty Images)

Mary Kate Olsen(07 of16)

Actress and former child star Mary Kate Olsen famously went to rehab in 2003 for anorexia, but rarely spoke about it. In 2008 she confessed that the disease nearly killed her. "There have definitely been times in my life when I just turned to people and said, 'I'm done -- this is too much for me. This is too over-whelming," she said. (credit:Getty Images)

Kelly Clarkson(08 of16)

In 2007, singer Kelly Clarkson told CosmoGirl that she was bulimic in high school. "The lesson I took from that was purely superficial, but that's what I grew up thinking for a long time. It wasn't smart, and I headed straight into an eating disorder and became bulimic for the next six months," she said. (credit:Getty Images)

Katie Couric(09 of16)

Katie Couric discussed her own history with bulimia on an episode of her new daytime talk show "Katie" while interviewing Demi Lovato, the New York Post reported."I wrestled with bulimia all through college and for two years after that," Couric said while interviewing an expert in eating disorders, according to People.com. (credit:Getty Images)

Katharine McPhee(10 of16)

In 2006, singer Katharine McPhee talked to "Good Morning America" about her five-year battle with bulimia that nearly destroyed her vocal cords. At her worst point, McPhee binged and purged as many as seven times a day, she said just a few weeks ago. She said that appearing on "American Idol" saved her life by forcing her to confront her problem. (credit:Getty Images)

Jamie-Lynn Sigler(11 of16)

"Sopranos" star Jamie-Lynn Sigler told "The Early Show" she had exercise bulimia: "I ended up starting at a routine which was, you know, 20 minutes in the morning and cutting back a little on my calories. And it snowballed into six or seven hours a day of exercise," said Sigler. (credit:AP)

Candace Cameron Bure(12 of16)

In 2010, former "Full House" star Candace Cameron Bure revealed her battle with bulimia when she released her book titled, "Reshaping It All." She told People that she began binging and purging after "Full House" ended its run in 1995 and she was adjusting to life in Canada with her new husband, Russian-born NHL player Valeri Bure. (credit:Getty Images)

Kate Beckinsale(13 of16)

In 2005 actress Kate Beckinsale opened up about her anorexic past. The star once weighed only 70 pounds and attended five therapy sessions a week for four years to fight the disease. (credit:Getty Images)

Ashlee Simpson(14 of16)

In 2005 singer and actress Ashlee Simpson told Cosmopolitan that as a young ballerina she struggled with anorexia. "I was around a lot of girls with eating disorders, and I actually had a minor one myself," says Simpson, who at one point stood 5'2" but only weighed 70 pounds. Simpson said her parents stepped in and made her eat, adding that family support really helped her. (credit:Getty Images)

Crystal Renn(15 of16)

After breaking into the modeling industry at 16 years old, Renn battled anorexia before getting healthy and switching over to the world of plus-size modeling two years later. In her memoir "Hungry," the Vogue cover girl chronicles her struggle to take control of her body -- and her career -- to become the size she feels most comfortable with. Renn continues to speak out about underweight models in the fashion world, championing larger sample sizes to encourage diversity in the media and healthy habits. (credit:Courtesy)

Portia de Rossi(16 of16)

The actress has spoken out about her struggles with the "starving and binging and purging" that plagued her since she was 12. According to her memoir, "Unbearable Lightness," once she was cast in "Ally McBeal" in 1998, she began cutting down her food intake until she reached 82 pounds and collapsed on set. After hitting rock bottom, de Rossi gained and lost weight, eventually settling into a healthy lifestyle. "I thank God for Ellen every day -– she has enabled me to be exactly who I am. We first met in 2001 when I weighed 168 pounds, but she says she never saw me as heavy –- she only saw the person inside," de Rossi wrote. "It’s ironic, really, that I tried so hard to present myself as something I wasn’t when all I ever wanted was to be loved for my true self." (credit:Getty)

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