Thandie Newton reveals her battle with bulimia

Hollywood actress and former ER star Thandie Newton has revealed that she once suffered from bulimia.

"I had terrible bulimia for about a year. I've still got the scars from my knuckles from where I put my fingers down my throat," the actress told Easy Living magazine.

Thandie revealed that the obsession with food started when she was 14, while she was training for her ballet exams and eating "nothing but cottage cheese".

She studied dance in London after moving from Zambia to the UK at the age of 11.

Thandie, 34, added that abusive relationships didn't help, and she developed the eating disorder when she was in her early twenties.

"I'd been involved with this guy for a long time, he was much older than me and I felt a lot of shame about my sexual relationship with him," she said candidly.

"I would have these dinners with him and then go back to the flat and throw up.

"Then I went out with someone who was emotionally abusive, criticising me the whole time."

Eventually, Thandie sought help when she was filming in LA.

"I saw a therapist for the first time. After that first session, I never threw up again. I had made the connection between shame and self abuse," she said.

Thandie played ER's Kem, the love interest of Dr. Carter, from 2003 to 2005. She has also acted in several successful films, including Crash and The Pursuit of Happyness.