Laura Prepon says mother taught her to be bulimic

In her latest book, “You & I, as Mothers” — billed as part-memoir, part-guidebook — Laura Prepon reveals that her mother taught her how to have an eating disorder.

“My mother taught me bulimia. It started when I was 15 and lasted until my late twenties,” the “Orange is the New Black” actress tells People, ahead of the books launch on April 7th.

Prepon remembers that she was “a healthy athletic kid.” It was only after an open casting call at age 15 where she was told to immediately lose 25 pounds, that the goal of weight loss became a “shared project” with her mother.

Prepon’s mother diligently weighed her every morning. Eventually, Prepon dropped down to 105 lbs. That’s when her mother confided: “You can have your cake and eat it too.” The 40-year-old actress knew what her mother meant and it became a bonding experience, “a shared secret.”

Prepon says that her mother who grew up in the era of Twiggy and stick-thin ideals believed that she was doing the best thing for her daughter and equated thinness with success.

Seven years ago, Prepon’s mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and the actress says that seeing her mother lose her sense of self “put me in confrontation with our past and began the path to recovery.”

Now that her mother is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s, Prepon confesses any anger towards her mother has gone.

“I don’t want to be angry with her, especially now, because I don’t know how much time we have left. I want those moments when she is present to be good,” Prepon explained.

Prepon, who has previously written a book about losing weight, is married to “Lone Survivor” star, Ben Foster. Together the couple, who wed in 2018, are the parents of 3-year-old Ella, and a new baby boy who was born last month.

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