Ex-Neighbours star Madeleine West reveals sad truth behind glamorous awards show picture

Ex-Neighbours star Madeleine West has shared the harrowing truth behind a picture of her at a glitzy UK event, admitting she was “so broken”.

Madeleine West has spoken out about her harrowing struggles with anorexia and mental health issues, admitting she was “broken”.

The former Neighbours star, 42, shared two throwback photos of herself at the National TV Awards in London in 2000, dressed to the nines in a glamorous blue satin gown with a matching shawl.

While West appeared to be smiling while posing at the glitzy Royal Albert Hall event, in reality, she revealed she was putting herself through “torture” to meet unrealistic beauty standards.

“If Barbie was a real woman, she’d have to walk on all fours due to her proportions, and would not be able to lift her head,” West wrote.

“If Barbie were an actual women, she would be 5’9’ tall, weigh 110lbs (49 kilograms), have a 39’ bust, an 18’ waist, 33’ hips and a size 3 shoe.

“Slumber Party Barbie was introduced in 1965 and came with a bathroom scale and a book entitled ‘How to Lose Weight’ with directions inside stating simply ‘Don’t eat.’”

The actress posted this photo of herself at the glitzy 2000 awards ceremony. Picture: Dave Hogan/Getty Images

With former co-star Tom Oliver, who played Lou Carpenter. Picture: William Conran/PA Images/Getty Images

West pointed out that Barbie’s Body Mass Index (BMI) would be dangerously low and that she’d “fit the criteria” of having anorexia.

“In fact, most of her vital organs simply would not fit within her tiny frame,” she added.

“Yet how many of us have pushed our bodies to dangerous extremes to achieve similarity impossible representations of beauty … which, let’s be frank, are no longer considered extreme, but increasingly ‘normal?’”

West, who has spoken previously about being abused as a child, went on to describe the “torture” she’d later put herself through.

“Like so many other teens, carrying the scars of childhood trauma, I sought to control my body … by torturing it,” she explained.

“Contorting it into what I deludely toughly would make me loveable, acceptable, beautiful.

“I was so broken. I was so wrong.”

The mum-of-six finished up by revealing her pride in her “gymnastics-obsessed daughters” who desire “fitness over thinness”, before urging people not to “make the same mistakes” that she had.

West has been praised for speaking candidly about her personal struggles.

West’s harrowing post comes just months on from the former TV star revealing she had a terrifying wake-up call after pushing her body to its limits.

In March, she shared a photo from hospital while attached to an IV drip, explaining the caption that “honouring every commitment” had seen her “dishonouring” her health and eventually requiring medical attention.

“I’m smiling but I’m not gonna sugar-coat the fact I’ve just had a massive wake up call,” West wrote alongside her selfie.

“I know I’m not alone in being guilty of taking my health for granted … For a while now mine has been screaming to stop and yesterday it finally hit the breaks.”

West added: “I’m only sharing this because there is an awful lot of polished perfection here on the gram, not much evidence of where most of us find ourselves more often than not, trawling through the muck of the day-to-day, sometimes brought to our knees.

“It’s important to see that stuff because that too is all part of the never-ending story of being a beautifully, terrifyingly, humbly, perfectly imperfect HUMAN BEING. I hear a lot of hype in my industry about being a YES MAN. Well right now I’m practising being a NO WOMAN.”

Originally published as Ex-Neighbours star Madeleine West reveals sad truth behind glamorous awards show picture