Nancy Kerrigan Admits Anorexia Battle After Tonya Harding Assault
April 12 2017, Published 4:11 p.m. ET
Nancy Kerrigan's path to the mirror ball trophy was paved with six miscarriages and an eating disorder, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a new interview, the Olympic silver medalist revealed she developed anorexia after rival Tonya Harding helped to plan a vicious assault against her in 1994.
I was in the news all over the world," she told PEOPLE of her life after the attack. "Even in the Olympic Village it was very uncomfortable. People would look around the corner like, 'There she is!' Like I had a couple of heads on my shoulders. It was very strange. I just didn't fit in anymore."
She added that "everything else was really out of control at the time," and she began to control her eating as a way to cope.
"I would avoid food because it was something I could do," Kerrigan explained. "I felt like I could control that and nothing else….I don't know why but that seemed like an accomplishment."
"I didn't realize what I was doing. I lost a whole bunch of weight before competing because I was working out for hours. It's a lot of work. Then realizing, 'Oh, I ate a banana today.' "
"I just started shrinking," she continued. "I'd put on makeup differently to sort of hide that I was wasting away. Strangers would say, 'Oh, that's not enough food on your plate.' "
She credited her manager— and now husband — Jerry Solomon with getting her through her disease by encouraging her to eat "two more bites" at each meal in the Olympic Village. They tied the knot a year later, and welcomed their son Matthew in 1996.
Solomon, 63, and Kerrigan, 47, struggled to conceive again and turned to IVF to help welcome Brian, 12, and Nicole, 8. She claims kids helped her overcome her eating disorder as well.
"I saw my son doing the same thing. He was, like, 'No, no, no. I'm not hungry. I'm fine. I'm fine,' " she explained. "I was, like, 'Oh. Give me a piece of that pizza. I better eat that because he's watching me and doing what I'm doing. I'm doing that again.' I'm so thankful for a logical brain because it could've gone such a different route."
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She previously detailed her traumatic childhood of bullying in a tell-all memoir, and faced scrutiny after her brother Mark was sentenced to over two years of prison for his involvement in the 2010 death of their father.
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