Real Housewife of Orange County, Alexis Bellino, spoke out this week about her 20-year struggle with an eating disorder.

Is this news?  I though all Real Housewives were required to have some sort of eating/psychological/paranoia disorder.

In an interview with Life & Style Magazine, the 32-year-old mother-of-two, opens up about her parents divorce, which she credits as the cause of her abnormal eating habits.

I just didn’t want to eat… Looking back, I think it was my way of controlling something at a time when everything else in my life was out of my control.

Bellino claims that her disorder spiraled out of control during her freshman year at the University of Missouri- Columbia, when she began bingeing and purging on a regular basis.  It wasn’t until 2005, when she wed second husband, Jim Bellino, that the 118 lbs. housewife began to accept the body she was given.

[Jim] finally got me to stop counting calories…He loves my body. In fact, he says he likes me about 5 pounds heavier…It’s not like I’m healed… This haunts me…. Sweets are my weakness, I’ll serve everyone else dessert, but I’ll pour salt and pepper all over mine so I don’t eat it.

I try not to let my weight consume me, but an eating disorder is a lifetime disease… It cannot be cured, but it doesn’t have to be practiced. My goal is to reach other women — and let them know that they can conquer it.

Well said Alexis.

[Image: DJDM/WENN]