Sharna Burgess has worked to overcome disordered eating struggles.
“I struggled with binge eating and restriction mostly,” Burgess, 40, said during a Sunday, Jan. 18, Instagram Story Q&A when asked about her history with eating disorders. “I had a super complicated relationship with food as a teenager and into my 20s.”
Without elaborating, Burgess acknowledged that his habits “changed” once he entered his 30s.
The Dancing with the stars alum previously revealed this his body dysmorphia started during his dance training.
While Sharna Burgess has a lot of love for her Dancing With the Stars family, she confessed that her relationship with the show hasn’t been steady over the years. “My last five years on the show have been … rocky,” Burgess, 38, said on the Monday, Sept. 11, episode of the “Oldish” podcast hosted by (…)
“I had a real struggle with my body because of the dance,” Burgess told Australia Good Health and Wellbeing magazine in a 2021 interview. “I remember being 15 and my teachers putting her on the scale every other day and telling us if we should lose weight or not. Every week they told me I needed to lose more weight, and I certainly wasn’t overweight.”
She continued: “Even though dance was something I needed in my life, it definitely instilled a negative body image. It also started a negative eating pattern where I would go through one day and then be starving. I struggled with that over the years. Even in my 20s, I would look in the mirror and see the 15-year-old girl who was being told to lose more weight every week.”
Burgess began to appreciate his physique after joining the cast of DWTS in 2011.
“It was seeing how the celebrities on the show transformed and ended up loving their bodies through the ability to move and dance that really shook up my perspective,” she explained. “I thought, ‘Wow, I’ve been doing this my whole life.’ I started to see something else in the mirror, I started to see a body that had gotten me through some incredibly difficult times, that had created beautiful moments, that had won championships, that had led me to a life that I never thought possible.”
Burgess last served as a DWTS professional during season 30 of 2021, where she danced with the now fiance Brian Austin Green. He left the show in 2022 after the couple welcomed son Zane. (Green, 52, is also the father of four children from previous relationships.)
“After long conversations and a lot of thought and really trying to sit with what was right, I’ve made the very difficult decision not to do the season this year of dwalking with the starsBurgess said a social media video from August 2022. “I wasn’t ready to spend at least 10 hours a day away from Zane. I’m a full-time breastfeeding mom, and not only that, I’m so in love with being a mom. As hard as it was to say no. dancingI have this family and this newborn at home that I may never get these moments back (with).
Burgess, however, hasn’t moved away from the ballroom for good.
“It’s never a no,” she said Sunday, responding to another Instagram Story question about a possible return to reality TV. “I was supposed to do something with them last season, but I was already working on a play in New York and couldn’t commit. I love (the cast and crew), the show, and I always want to be there.”
If you or someone you know suffers from an eating disorder, visit the National Eating Disorders Alliance website or call their hotline at (866) 662-1235. Text “ALLIANCE” to 741741 for free and 24/7 support.