Princess Diana's battle with bulimia depicted in new children's book which describes how she developed eating disorder

10 August 2023, 10:23

Princess Diana's fight with bulimia has been depicted in a new children's book which tackles the topic of eating disorders.

The new book in the Little People, Big Dreams series, which is due to be published on September 7, will tell young readers about the much-loved princess and her life in the royal family.

The book by Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara will claim Diana's eating disorder developed when she learnt her husband, King Charles, was in love with another woman.

The Telegraph reports the biography features a description of the eating disorder that Diana suffered from, saying: “Whenever she felt alone, she sought relief by eating all the cakes she could find in the royal kitchens.”

It goes on to describe bulimia in more detail, saying: “But that sweet feeling of comfort didn’t last long. Once it was gone, she would try to get rid of all the food she had eaten by making herself sick.”

One page in the book also says how “even though her life seemed to be taken from the pages of a fairy tale, she soon realised that the prince’s heart belonged to someone else… Over time that sadness grew into an eating disorder called bulimia.”

“It took her time to seek help, learn to love herself and stop hurting her body. But once she did, she felt better than ever,” the book goes on to say.

However, the author notes that the princess “was one of the first famous people to speak up about her struggle with bulimia, helping others to confront it, too”.

Princess Diana first opened up about her eating disorder in 1995 during a notorious BBC Panorama interview with Martin Bashir.

In the same interview, she revealed she had been self harming in the years following her split from Charles.

She told the disgraced journalist: "I'd come home and it would be very difficult to know how to comfort myself having been comforting lots of other people, so it would be a regular pattern to jump into the fridge."

Diana added the eating disorder was a "symptom" of the marriage problems she had been having - and argued she was "crying out for help" but didn't receive the support she needed, instead being branded "unstable".

Tom Quinn, director of external affairs for eating disorder charity Beat, told the newspaper: "We advise that writers avoid going into detail about eating disorder behaviours, calories or weights as this can worsen symptoms for somebody who is unwell, or contribute to an eating disorder developing if someone is vulnerable."