Kaia Gerber: ‘I’ve had disordered eating in my life’

By Lauren Del Fabbro, Press Association Entertainment Reporter

Model and actress Kaia Gerber said she has experienced “disordered eating” in her life and struggled with people commenting on her body.

The 24-year-old stars in Ryan Murphy’s latest thriller series The Shards, which is based on the best-selling novel of the same name and is set against the backdrop of a Los Angeles prep school in the 1980s as it faces a wave of murders by a local serial killer.

Prior to pivoting into the film and TV industry, she walked a number of catwalks, following in the footsteps of her mother, US supermodel Cindy Crawford.

Speaking to Vogue, Gerber opened up about how her body has been a point of conversation, especially in the media, throughout the years, with the young actress often compared to her mother.

She said: “We’re clearly in one of those cycles right now where people are very, very, very thin.

“As someone who’s been thin most of my life, I’ve always been compared against my mom — like, ‘what’s wrong with Kaia?’

“I’m so jealous of my mom’s body. I would have loved to be born with boobs and a butt. People have always commented on my body, which is hard because I’m not always ready to comment on my own body.

“I’ve had disordered eating in my life.”

According to the NHS website, an eating disorder is a mental health condition where people use the control of food to cope with feelings and other situations, and could include eating too much or too little or worrying about your weight or body shape.

She added: “People are like, ‘You look terrible,’ and it doesn’t exactly make you go, ‘Oh, good. Let me get over this mental illness then!’

“Negativity has never saved someone’s life.”

She acts opposite Homer Gere, the son of her mother’s ex-husband, Richard Gere, who for the most part of his life has stayed out of the limelight until he landed a role in the latest series of Euphoria.

Gerber wears her “nepo baby” status without fear, knowing she has “only ever benefited in my career from it” and warned Gere that in some ways he also has a little more to prove because of his upbringing.

She added: “I also find myself doing it to other nepo babies, thinking, like, ‘okay, show me why you deserve this job’.

“I said to Homer — because the concept is daunting to him, having lived as an adult so far without that perception, whereas I sort of went through it when I wasn’t fully sentient – I said to him, ‘Homer, unfortunately with this show, it’s not like you’re just any unknown actor and people will judge you as an unknown actor. But what that’s done for me is make me want to work harder’.”

– Anyone who thinks they may have an eating disorder are advised to see a GP as soon as they can.