Teenage Hollywood starlet Lindsay Lohan, who was rushed to hospital this week after suffering an asthma attack, has admitted fighting a fierce battle with the eating disorder bulimia.
The 19-year-old singer and star of Mean Girls and Herbie: Fully Loaded, the subject of intense media speculation following a dramatic weight loss, revealed to Vanity Fair magazine that she was ill and had dabbled in drugs.
Lohan started out in movies at the tender age of 12 in a 1998 remake of The Parent Trap and later launched a recording career, becoming one of Hollywood's most scrutinised long before she was able to vote.
Lohan told Vanity Fair in an interview published in its February edition that she was forced to recognise that she had an eating disorder when the producer of the Saturday Night Live television show staged an intervention.
"They sat me down, literally before I was going to do (Saturday Night Live), and they said, 'You need to take care of yourself. We care about you too much, and we've seen too many people do this, and you're talented.
"I just started bawling. I knew I had a problem and I couldn't admit it. My arms were disgusting. I had no arms."
Referring to a photograph of herself taken at the time, Lohan told the US magazine: "I looked at it and was like, Jesus Christ."
{{/usCountry}}Referring to a photograph of herself taken at the time, Lohan told the US magazine: "I looked at it and was like, Jesus Christ."
{{/usCountry}}She also admitted having tried drugs "a little," but added quickly that she had "gotten that out of my system."
Lohan was admitted to hospital in Miami on Monday after suffering an asthma attack, her publicist announced Tuesday.