Keira Knightley Discussed The "Public Shaming" She Faced For Her Thin Appearance, And It's Sad

This post contains discussion of eating disorders.

Keira Knightley reflected on the eating disorder rumors from her early career.

While Keira's career dates back to the early '90s, it reached international levels with her role in 2003's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. She, of course, played Elizabeth Swann alongside Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow and Orlando Bloom's Will Turner. She also did three sequels before ending her run in 2017 to focus on other projects.

During that time, Keira started facing attention for her weight, including speculation of an eating disorder. She denied the rumors, and in 2007, she won a libel suit for a news article that appeared to accuse her of lying and suggested she was to blame for the death of a woman with anorexia.

"I knew I wasn’t," Keira recently told the Sunday Times of the eating disorder speculation. "I knew I was eating."

Still, she says the allegations were traumatic. "In that classic trauma way, I don’t remember it," Keira confessed. "There's been a complete delete, and then some things will come up and I'll suddenly have a very bodily memory of it because, ultimately, it's public shaming, isn't it? It's obviously part of my psyche, given how young I was when it happened. I’ve been made around it."

Keira also discussed how some of her Hollywood peers with speculated eating disorders were also treated at the time. "I remember viscerally one of the Olsen twins had anorexia, and she went into a clinic," she shared, seemingly talking about Mary-Kate Olsen. "I remember being asked about it on a press tour, like it was a joke."

"She was meant to be shamed for seeking help for anorexia," Keira said. "I remember sitting there just being like, 'Wow, this is wild.' Can you imagine?" With tears welling up, Keira admitted, "That made me really emotional. That's not even about me, it’s about her. I still can’t bear it."

Read the full interview here.

The National Eating Disorders Association helpline is 1-800-931-2237; for 24/7 crisis support, text “NEDA” to 741741.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline is 1-800-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services; GoodTherapy.org is an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy.