Iron Man 3's Ashley Hamilton Has An Eating Disorder Past -- Even As A Man!

It’s true that eating disorders seem to afflict women more than men, but it would be completely wrong for someone to go around saying that men never get them — take actor Ashley Hamilton, for instance. He was in Iron Man 3, and he has a history of eating disorder trouble!
Ashley plays a small but pivotal role of former military officer Jack Taggert, and he also has a band called The Wondergirls, and he says he’s:

“really grateful for somebody giving me an opportunity again. I just didn’t have that before.”

At first he could be talking about the drug and alcohol abuse, which he conquered. He’s been sober for SIX years, and he’s in the middle of getting his career back. There was just one thing left he had to take care of, and it was just as big of a problem. Here’s what he said:

“I suffered from bulimia and anorexia. I believe it was my problem before I got into drugs and alcohol. I used the drugs and alcohol to control the food addiction.”

He still struggles with it, despite having had treatment for it in the past year:

“I don’t have it perfect now. I’ve been free from bulimia for years but I still struggle with food, restricting or overeating. That’s been the hardest for me in sobriety. When I speak at meetings I have people come up to me and say I suffer from it, too, but I’m too afraid to talk about it because it’s so painful. It’s almost like drug addiction is totally acceptable to talk about in Hollywood. But food addiction? Nobody wants to talk about that. It’s really shameful as a man to have that.”

He used to be called Fatley in high school — which is just awful. We wish more was being done about bullying in schools.
Ashley continued:

“With food it’s not black and white. It’s: ‘Oh, my behavior around food has been better this month.’ You can’t live without food. You’re surrounded by food constantly and you have to eat. There are so many people in our country suffering from this. It’s an emotional problem and that’s been the struggle for me through sobriety.”

Well, it sounds like you can handle it, Ashley!
You’ve been doing an AMAZING job these past six years, and we’re happy to see you back in major movies! It’s about time, and we’re really proud of not only working on your issues, but being open and honest about them!
That’s a huge deal!
[Image via Faye’s Vision/WENN.]