Candace Cameron Bure makes shock admission about ‘eating disorder struggle’ that began 30 years ago

Candace Cameron Bure has revealed that she continues to struggle with an eating disorder that started when she was a teenager.

This week, on her eponymous podcast, the 49-year-old actress admitted she still considers herself to be bulimic.

‘The thoughts never leave me,’ she confessed in conversation with her guest, author Lisa Whittle.

The episode, titled Why Can’t I Feel Free in My Body?, explored body image and insecurities, with the former Full House star discussing how being on TV at a young age affected her confidence.

‘I, too, developed an eating disorder, when I was 18,’ Bure shared after Whittle talked about anorexia. ‘It was binging and purging. I’m a bulimic. And I still say I’m a bulimic.’

‘The thoughts [of binging and purging] never leave me,’ she shared in conversation with her guest, author Lisa Whittle 

She explained that while she’s not actively purging, she is still battling the disorder ‘because the thoughts — whether I’m doing that or not — they never leave me.’

‘So I still need the tools to just say, “No, Candace, we’re not doing that,”‘ she vulnerably told listeners.

Bure spoke about how her parents’ efforts to prevent her from developing disordered eating habits while growing up in the spotlight backfired.

She rose to fame at just 11-years-old while starring as DJ Tanner on the late 80s sitcom Full House. 

They ‘did the best job in protecting me,’ the former child star said of her mother and father, adding that they ‘were really afraid’ of her weight potentially being criticized by television producers.

‘I had cheeks and I had thicker arms and I was, like, a normal 12-year-old, you know? I really was a normal 12-year-old, but I had a little bit more fat on me than other kids on TV,’ she noted. 

‘They were just fearful that I would develop an eating disorder, just because of all of the pressures,’ the mother-of-three shared.

Candace said her family shifted to a health-centered lifestyle, encouraging, ‘Let’s make sure we make good choices with food.’

‘Everyone in my house was always on a diet. My mom was always on a diet. My sisters were always on a diet. I was always put on a diet. But it wasn’t like, “Oh, you have to lose weight,”‘ the actress described of her parents’ hands-on approach.

Bure rose to fame at just 11-years-old while starring as DJ Tanner on the 90s sitcom Full House

Candace said her parents’ efforts to prevent her from developing disordered eating habits while growing up in the spotlight backfired; pictured with Bob Saget in 1987

Although the attention to health and exercise was ‘preventative,’ it ‘completely shaped my viewpoint that I had about myself and the feelings about my body,’ the TV star stated.

‘I’m on TV… and I don’t want to be too fat compared to other actors. My parents never wanted a producer to come up to me and say, like, “We need your child to lose weight,” so let’s do everything preventative.’

Looking back, Bure said, ‘That very thing just shaped the way I looked at my body, which was like, “Oh, it’s not good enough the way it is right now.”

‘That that kind of started young,’ she said, adding that it continued ‘through my teenage years.’

Now, she says she feels like a ‘broken record.’ 

‘I’m 49-years-old and I’m like, why do I think about this so much? Why does it even matter so much? It’s so ridiculous. And yet I’m still thinking about it,’ she lamented.