Madison De La Garza Alludes Eating Disorder To 'Desperate Housewives' Role

Madison De La Garza, the younger sister to Demi Lovato, is speaking on her traumatic past.

De La Garza is undoubtedly one of the select few who got their start in the industry as a child star, just like her famous sister. She played Juanita Solis on "Desperate Housewives" at age six. 

However, this prominent Hollywood role and the young fame came with some unforgettable and nasty experiences, which the young actress recently opened up about on the "Heart of the Matter" podcast.

On April 11, the 21-year-old considered speaking candidly about her childhood traumas. She shared with host Elizabeth Vargas that cruel online comments about her physical appearance triggered her into "trying to starve" herself at a young age.

The "Bad Teacher" actress recalled her "first memories of trying to starve" at age seven. She explained that the reactions she got while filming the hit show left her stunned and confused, mainly because she knew that it wasn't genuine.

"A lot of people came at it in a way that they were 'concerned for my health.' And I personally believe that that's just not true, that that was a cover-up so that they could just judge a 6-year-old."

Into the conversation, the "Pink Elephant" co-director narrated how she would sneak to use the computer even though adults always supervised her. "I would just spend a crazy amount of time reading through these comments, and they almost were just atrocious. They said things like they wanted me to die because of my appearance. It was just horrible," adding, "And this was when I was 7, 8 years old."

She commented that the negative and vile statement led to her mental health issues that developed into bad habits. "Reading comments like that affected my mental health and ultimately played into me developing an eating disorder at a very young age."

The conversation took an interesting turn as the "Cookie Monsters" child star spoke about the support she got from Eva Longoria, a fellow castmate on the hit ABC series; the 48-year-old played the stepmom to Garza's character and wife to Ricardo Antonia Chavira, who played Garza's father. 

She explained, "And if I ever did want to go to her with these things, I absolutely could have." Regarding the mother of one, Garza said. "The whole joke of my character was that Eva was this thin, beautiful model, and her daughter turned out to be quite the opposite. And so, I think she was very aware that this would affect me." 

She continued, "We never explicitly talked about it, but [Longoria] went out of her way to make me feel like I was pretty and special, and she made me feel like I was family." 

Last month, Lovato's baby sister revealed that she struggled with substance abuse and celebrated a significant sobriety goal. She shared news of the massive feat via TikTok clip by acting out how her 'ancestors' might respond to hearing her that she quit using addictive substances, noting, "I know they're proud" in the caption.

The post was flooded with support from dedicated fans and family, notably her mother, Dianne De La Garza, who wrote, "This is the cutest video ever!! Your cute smile!! So proud of you!! ???.”

Garza's journey to sobriety wasn't easy as ,it translated to being emotionally distant from her mother. In an interview, she shared how she felt disconnected from everyone because of her love of substances. She said, "My best friend was substances, and it disconnected me from those around me."

The young adult mentioned that the sickness made her want to hide from the world.   However, she decided to make a change when it started affecting her relationship with my friends and her mom.

Fixing her relationship with the former country singer was crucial because, to her, "she's my everything. I would do anything for her."