Amelia Gray Hamlin, the daughter of actor Harry Hamlin and “Real Housewives” star Lisa Rinna, vividly remembers the one day that forever changed her life.
The model was in the throes of her eating disorder when her family, including older sister Delilah Belle Hamlin, intervened.
“I woke up one morning at my childhood’s best friend,” the 19-year-old recalled on the latest episode of “The Skinny Confidential Him and Her Podcast.”
“It was, like seven in the morning,” the star continued. “My parents, my sister, they’re all outside, waiting to pick me up.”
Hamlin’s family already had a plan they were determined to set in motion. That day, they took Hamlin to UCLA, where she could begin treatment for her eating disorder. Hamlin said her initial reaction was to dismiss any possibility she had a problem. However, one doctor wasn’t having it.
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Amelia Hamlin attends Rolla's x Sofia Richie Collection Launch Event at 1 Hotel West Hollywood on February 20, 2020, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jean Baptiste Lacroix/Getty Images)
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“He looked at me… and he was, like, ‘So, yeah, basically at this rate in about four months, you’re gonna be 45 pounds, and you’re gonna be dead,'" Hamlin recounted.
Hamlin said the doctor’s haunting words shocked her into taking her family’s concerns seriously.
“You don’t need to be skinny to, like, live your best life,” she said. “It’s either [be] skinny and die, or, like, happy and be who you are.”
According to Hamlin, she first started restricting her calories after seeing a paparazzi photo of herself.
“I think I was like 14 or 15, walking out… with my mom,” she explained. “I was kind of in my awkward stage in life and paparazzi was shooting at us, and I didn’t really think anything of it. I’d had that happened since I was, you know, born. It wasn’t a big thing.”
But when Hamlin finally saw the snapshot, she became unhappy with her appearance. Hamlin said that a model she looked up to at the time relied on the Master Cleanse for a major photoshoot.
Hamlin tried the cleanse, which is a concoction of lemon juice, pure maple syrup, water and cayenne pepper, for 25 days. Hamlin also shared that occasionally, she would supplement the cleanse with soup or popcorn shared with friends.
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But Hamlin’s determination to alter her appearance didn’t stop there. She started excessively working out at the family’s home gym, which she would use during the day, as well as at night long after her parents were asleep.
It didn’t take long for Hamlin’s family to realize something wasn’t right.
“And then my mom comes in the gym one day and was, like, ‘What’s happening? Are you OK? Your sister thinks you’re anorexic,’” said Hamlin.
Hamlin insisted she was fine. Still, her family wasn’t convinced. And it wasn’t until treatment that Hamlin truly realized how much her eating disorder had taken control of her life.
“I immediately gained 50 pounds in six months [during recovery] and, to be honest, I was still starving myself,” she admitted. “The first three months.”
Today, Hamlin said she’s been recovered for nearly two years. But the challenges aren’t completely over.
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L-R: Delilah Belle Hamlin, Amelia Hamlin and Lisa Rinna attend Christian Cowan AW/20 Fashion Show on February 11, 2020, at Spring Studios in New York City. (Photo by Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
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“I have suffered so many environmental issues in my body now, between my hormone imbalance, between my thyroid being inflamed constantly, between my Hashimoto’s [disease], between my depression and anxiety that I now have,” she said. “Nobody needs to go through that. It’s just a waste of time and a waste of two pills every morning.”
And scales still make Hamlin uncomfortable. In fact, Hamlin says she avoids them. Otherwise, her day is “f-----ed.”
Back in 2018, Hamlin opened up to her followers on Instagram about battling an eating disorder.
“I have a lot of health complications after starving myself for so long so it’s going to be a journey that I go through for a large part of my life,” she wrote at the time. “I still have an extremely healthy lifestyle and I work out so hard all week to maintain my Body.
"Not to say that recently being diagnosed with Hashimoto's has also been an extreme challenge for me to balance when still getting over this part of my life, but I am getting there. One day at a time. I want to help.”
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