During a recent episode of the “Glamorous Trash” podcast, the 80s actress, detailed the the scrutiny she faced over her weight.
Not only did she face comments from critics, but she was also reportedly pressured to lose weight from the Designing Women series creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason.
Burke, 67, who struggled with her weight for years, began taking diet pills while attending acting school in London. When she returned to the United States, she learned they were illegal so she had to find an alternative. While she found a pill she called “Black Beauties,” eventually she built up a tolerance to them and needed something stronger.
“Nobody knew about crystal meth at the time,” she said on the podcast.
Burke recalled someone on the set of Filthy Rich told her about methamphetamine.
“[They told me,] ‘You chop it up. You snort.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to snort it.’ So I put it in cranberry juice and [drank] it… and wouldn’t eat for five days.”
Despite taking the drug, she still received comments regarding her weight, which eventually led to her exit from the show and later Hollywood.
“Hollywood will mess your head up. And I had always thought, ‘I want to be a famous actress.’ I thought that meant that you would be a famous and well-respected actress, but that’s not what it meant. And the moment I became famous, it was like, ‘Oh no, no, no. This is not what I had in mind at all. I don’t think I want to be this anymore.’ But then it’s too late.”
