Alexa PenaVega reveals six-year battle with Bulimia

The former child actress played Carmen Cortez in the Spy Kids franchise

The actress revealed her eating disorder developed from being told she was 'too fat' as a child (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

The American actress Alexa PenaVega has revealed she had Bulimia for six years.

PenaVega is perhaps best known for playing Carmen Cortez in the Spy Kids film franchise, as a teenager. She also starred in the 2008 film Repo! The Genetic Opera as Shilo Wallace.

PenaVega, 27, revealed her ordeal on Dancing With The Stars, the US version of Strictly Come Dancing, where she was eliminated last week.

The clip showed the actress explaining to her dance partner how her illness developed.

She said: “I was shooting this movie and the producers kept telling me ‘you’re too fat’… and as a child you don’t really know how to handle that kind of pressure so, from that moment, for the next six years of my life I had an eating disorder.”

“I struggled with bulimia for so long and even though I got through it, I feel like a lot of my insecurities still, with my body, are from that."

She continued: “This has always been a part of my life that I was always so afraid of people finding out about but I knew at some point I would talk about it because I wanted to help people.”

After being eliminated from the show following a dance off against her husband Carlos PenaVega, who is also a contestant on the show, she told Entertainment Tonight more about making her struggle with the illness public.

“I never wanted people to associate me with a problem, and that’s the biggest fear you have with trying to overcome [it]… So finally being able to just let it go and say ‘You know what, I know who I am. I know I’ve gotten past this and I’m proud of myself'.”

PenaVega, who was born in Miami, Florida began acting as a child. She has six siblings, including Makenzie Vega who plays Grace, the daughter of Julianna Margulies’ character Alicia Florrick in The Good Wife.

If you are affected by any of the issues in this article, please contact the charity Beat - which supports anyone affected by eating disorders or difficulties with food on 0345 634 1414.