Delta Burke Says She Turned to Crystal Meth to Try & Lose Weight in the '80s
Delta Burke is getting honest about the pressures of fame.
The 67-year-old actress, who played Suzanne Sugarbaker for five seasons on Designing Women, got candid about her weight on the Glamorous Trash podcast.
During the conversation, she revealed how she once turned to crystal meth to try and lose weight during her time on another TV series, Filthy Rich.
Keep reading to find out more…
On the set of Filthy Rich, which ran for two seasons from 1982 to 1983, Delta explained that someone on set had access to pills she called “Black Beauties,” and she was directed to “take them in the morning so you won’t eat. They were like medicine to me.”
After building up a tolerance to them, someone on the show suggested that she try methamphetamine.
“Nobody knew about crystal meth at the time,” she said on the podcast. “[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.”
“They were still saying, ‘Your butt’s too big. Your legs are too big.’ And I now look back at those pictures and go, ‘I was a freaking goddess,’” she continued.
After Filthy Rich ended in 1983, she starred on Designing Women, earning two Emmy nominations during her time on the series from 1986 to 1991.
The continued focus on her weight led to her exit from Designing Women later on she admitted, saying she was “emotionally too fragile” to deal with the “incredibly ugly” narratives about her size.
“I thought I was stronger. I tried very hard to defend myself against lies and all the ugliness that was there and I wasn’t gonna win. I’m just an actress, you know. I don’t have any power.”
“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.”
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