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I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! star Tegan Martin’s brave eating disorder confession

The former Miss Universe Australia tells OK! about her past body struggles, and how she overcame them.
Tegan Martin

When Lisa Curry, 54, and Natalie Bassingthwaighte, 41, casually say they’d be more than happy if they come out of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! a few kilos lighter, you get the impression they won’t lose sleep if they don’t shed any weight, either. But for some of their fellow contestants, weight loss is something they have a more complicated attitude towards.

Former Miss Universe Australia Tegan Martin says, “I don’t want to lose too much weight. There is nothing worse than a starved figure.”

She speaks from experience, telling OK!, “I had an eating disorder when I was 19 living in Paris as a model, which stemmed from the agent measuring me weekly. It was torture and I never want to harm my body in that way again.”

The young model’s comments emerge just days after she admitted on an episode of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! that she was left with no choice but to enter a beauty pageant after being deemed ‘too fat’ for popular show, Australia’s Next Top Model.

“The only thing you can do [to launch a modelling career in Australia] is Next Top Model or Miss Universe,” Tegen spilled to her campmates, “I was too fat for Next Top Model. They just said, like, they made out like I was ‘too commercial.'”

After trying diets as a young model, Tegan says her approach to food now is to “eat good, wholesome foods that give me energy and prevent disease, but in no means do I starve myself”. Likewise, when it comes to exercise, the 24-year-old is all about moderation.

“I do work out, but nothing too intense,” she explains. “I think I will do some light exercise [in the jungle], but I won’t push myself too much.”

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