Keira Knightley anorexia debate

Keira Knightley's mum: 'My daughter is not anorexic'

Keira Knightley's mum has stepped in to defend her daughter after becoming fed up of persistent rumours that she is anorexic.

Sharman Macdonald likened the media coverage Keira has received to 'playground bullying', and has said her daughter simply inherited a slim physique from her father.

Rumours that The Edge of Love star was suffering with an eating disorder started circulating after Keira hit the red carpet in a gold halterneck dress looking super-skinny. But mum Sharman, a playwright, says that Keira actually had to eat a special diet high in carbs and protein to keep weight on, adding that she 'eats like a horse.'

She said: 'She has always been thin. She's her daddy's daughter, with his long body.'

She continued: 'It's a playground situation that we're looking at with the Press - it's a form of bullying - but what can we do?'

In 2006, Knightley denied rumours that she had an eating disorder.

She said: 'I've got a lot of experience with anorexia - my grandmother and great-grandmother suffered from it, and I had a lot of friends at school who suffered from it, so I know it's not something to be taken lightly and I don't.

'But I don't have it, I am very sure of that.'

And last year the Atonement star admitted to visiting her GP for advice on how to gain weight.

She said: 'I went to the doctor to be checked out and asked him what I could do to put on weight.

'He told me that, for someone of my body type to get to a size 12, I would have to eat a lot of s*** food, stop exercising and drink loads. Basically, my body type is naturally thin. There is nothing I can do about it.'

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