LeAnn Rimes Denies Anorexia Rumors, ‘My Heart Was Breaking’

LeAnn Rimes has been plagued by ongoing rumors of anorexia ever since she debuted a dramatically thinner frame back in 2011, but the pop/country singer slammed those rumors in a new interview, claiming she has never suffered from an eating disorder and has a healthy body image.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Rimes opened up about her dramatic weight loss, which followed her controversial marriage to actor Eddie Cibrian (both Cibrian and Rimes left their respective spouses for each other). Rimes said her noticeable slim-down was attributable to “anxiety and stress,” the same issues for which she went to rehab last year.

"People said I was [anorexic], but I didn't have a problem with eating, as I ate a ton all the time -- I could eat my husband under the table!" Rimes told the website. "But I was going through a time when I just wasn't sleeping -- my mind wouldn't shut off and my heart was breaking."

Rimes and Cibrian met on the set of the Lifetime movie “Northern Lights” while they were both still married. Cibrian’s ex-wife, Brandi Glanville, has spoken often of the affair, accusing Rimes in her memoir, “Drinking & Tweeting,” of actively pursuing Cibrian while they were still married.

In an excerpt from the memoir, Glanville wrote, “LeAnn had ‘accidentally’ smeared some cake frosting on her top (she was still a bigger girl and completely flat-chested at the time) and asked my husband, not realizing that I was standing behind both of them, if he wanted to lick it off her.”

“This woman asked my husband if he wanted to eat the frosting mess she’d dropped on her nonexistent chest? ... He hadn’t realized I was there, either, and he laughed with hungry eyes at the suggestion,” she added.

But despite tabloid scrutiny of her body and public disses from Glanville, Rimes says that she is content with how she looks.

"Now I'm secure about my body, although I'm like any other woman and have my moments of self-doubt,” she said. “But it's nice to have a husband who tells you you're beautiful all the time," she said. "I'll say to him, 'I've gained a few pounds,' and he'll say, 'Good!' It just gives you another level of confidence. But being in this business, I've noticed that, image-wise, it's definitely worse for a woman."

Rimes also revealed that her marriage to Cibrian was a source of inspiration for her newest album, “Spitfire.”

"I think the last four years of my life just came out through my music," she said. "I don't think I expected the album to be this honest, but I found that the emotions just came pouring out of me. It was liberating and cathartic to write, but it wasn't easy."