IN TOUCH WEEKLY has a feature on the brave stars who put their negative relationships with food behind them.

Nicole Richie, Portia de Rossi, Tracey Gold, Geri Halliwell and Anne Hathaway Conquered Eating Disorders

1. Nicole Richie

Nicole didn’t want to be a role model

When she appeared dangerously skinny in 2005, Nicole Richie insisted she didn’t have an eating disorder, but conceded that something was wrong. “I know I’m too thin right now. I wouldn’t want any young girl looking at me and saying, ‘That’s what I want to look like,’” said Nicole, now 27. After dad Lionel intervened and she got “scared that it could be something more serious,” Nicole sought help from a medical team who labeled her condition “in the realm of anorexia.” Now the mom of 8-month-old Harlow insists that she no longer worries about her figure and that she loved “all the stages of pregnancy,” adding, “I feel like a superhero!”

2. Portia de Rossi

Portia’s family had to step in

“To this day, I’ll never deny myself any kind of food. Ever,” says Portia de Rossi, 35, who spent four years in counseling to overcome her anorexia. “I realized something was wrong when I stepped on the scale and saw 82 pounds,” recalls the actress, who only consumed 300 calories a day in 1999 while starring on Ally McBeal. “My brother and mother said, ‘You’re going to die.’ It woke me up,” Portia recalls, adding, “I don’t really regret much in my life, but I’ll never get the time back I spent worrying what the scale said.”

3. Tracey Gold

Tracey almost died

Tracey Gold was everyone’s favorite brainiac sister on Growing Pains. But off-camera, she had a painful secret: anorexia. “I’d originally gone on a diet to lose 20 pounds and it spiraled out of control. All life meant was losing weight and counting calories. My body started to shut down and I got really ill,” says Tracey, 39, who almost died after dropping to a skeletal 80 pounds. She left the show in 1992 and checked into rehab. Today, the mother of four has learned to love her figure. “When I had my first baby, I just had a newfound respect for my body,” she tells In Touch. “It was the key thing that helped me get truly better.”

4. Geri Halliwell

Geri grew to accept herself

“Whether I’m thin as a rake or round as a pudding, I have to walk in this body, so I may as well appreciate it,” says Geri Halliwell, 36. The former Spice Girl had yo-yoed between a size 6 and a size 14 before entering rehab in 2001 to overcome her anorexia and bulimia. Today, visits to Overeaters Anonymous and the birth of her daughter help to keep her balanced. “I want to have a healthy body image for Bluebell,” Geri says of her daughter, now 2.

5. Paula Abdul

Paula was in a living hell

In 1995, Paula Abdul labeled her then 17-year battle with bulimia a “war on my body. Whether I was sticking my head in the toilet or exercising for hours on end, I was spitting out the food and the feelings.” She recovered in 1994 thanks to a month-long therapy program, and the American Idol judge, now 46, has remained vocal about her own struggles in hope of helping others. “It’s not worth it to be a slave to how much you weigh. I’m living proof,” she says. “My life’s so much more balanced.”

6. Brittany Snow

Brittany was dieting at 12

“I always had in my mind that being skinny was better, even as a little girl,” says Hairspray star Brittany Snow, who began dieting by age 12. At 19, she weighed less than 90 pounds and was soon diagnosed with anorexia, exercise bulimia and body dysmorphia. But a hospital stint and therapy helped her reclaim her health and now, at 22, she’s moved beyond her weight issues: “I want to work and be with my friends. That’s all I care about.”

7. Jamie-Lynn Sigler

Jamie-Lynn over exercised

“I hated what I looked like. I just couldn’t stop,” says Jamie-Lynn Sigler, 27, about her high school bouts with anorexia and exercise bulimia (compulsively going to the gym). A scary 80 pounds, she’d wake up at 3 a.m. to work up a sweat for four hours before school. “I’d see my reflection and see more bones coming out. It was awful,” she recalls. A meltdown led to her getting help from a therapist and a nutritionist. “Knowing I was able to overcome it and be healthy and happy again is amazing,” she says.

8. Anne Hathaway

Anne feels like a new woman

“It’s all so negatively narcissistic to be so consumed with self,” says Anne Hathaway, looking back on her anorexic teen years. “I said to my mom, ‘Do you remember that girl? She’s now gone to sleep. She’s said her piece and she’s gone.’ Then I thought, ‘I remember her, only she’s no longer part of me,’” Anne, 25, adds about her former, tortured persona. The actress admits, however, that she’s lucky to still be thin. “In Hollywood, you have to be careful if you go above a size 6. Then you’re considered fat,” she says.

9. Jessica Alba

Jessica got the shakes

“I was always uncomfortable about the way my body developed,” says Jessica Alba, 27. “Everyone in my family is overweight. I wanted to be healthier, so I started cooking for myself when I was 12.” Still, the actress developed an eating disorder in 2000 while training for the action series Dark Angel. “I became obsessed. I got too thin,” admits the star, who realized she had a problem when she couldn’t stop shivering. Jessica now stays fit by avoiding processed foods and working out sensibly, but she also vows to never go naked on-screen: “I have too much anxiety,” she says.

10. Mary-Kate Olsen

Mary-Kate’s hair fell out

At a 2004 event, a low-cut dress revealed that Mary-Kate Olsen’s back was nothing but bones. Around that time, an insider told In Touch that MK noticed “clumps” of hair falling out — a classic symptom of an eating issue. “The hardest part to get to is that point of asking for help,” says Mary-Kate, who turned to twin sister Ashley before heading to the Cirque Lodge rehab center days after her 18th birthday. She checked out six weeks later, having successfully gained about 10 pounds.

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