Rica Peralejo reveals struggle with anorexia, regrets breast implants at 18 years old
Rica Peralejo reveals that she struggled with an eating disorder when she was still in show business—a problem that stemmed from the pressure of the entertainment industry that imposed certain beauty standards on actresses like her.
In a vlog posted on her YouTube channel on Friday, April 30, Rica said, when she was still a TV personality, she had to think about what she looks like. Particularly, Rica said, she paid extra close attention to her body because it was “involved in the entire process” of being an actress.
“They always say to us na ‘di ka pwedeng tumaba kasi ten pounds palagi ang gini-gain mo ‘pag nasa harap ka ng camera,” she shared.
“So, we always watched out for what we ate and that kinda brought me to the usual eating disorders kasi nga mas du’n naka-focus ‘yung mga tao,” Rica said, adding she went through “different kinds of diet and excessive workouts.”
The 40-year-old former actress also revealed she struggled with anorexia when she was younger. Anorexia is a medical condition defined as the lack or loss of appetite for food.
“I would not eat and I would get so thin and still when I looked in the mirror, I felt fat. ‘Yun ang isa sa mga naging focus nang industriya namin,” she added.
Looking back on her struggle, Rica realized that how much of what she thought was pretty or beautiful was “dictated by an outside force more than something it is that we know deep within us.”
“Or if that we know something, it gets drowned out by things around us,” she said.
For her, one of those outside forces was her work in show business.
“My worlds would dictate to me the idea of beauty and style,” Rica added.
She also discussed having breast implants when she was 18 years old, during the peak of her showbiz popularity. An actress who started out in show business starring in youth-oriented shows and movies, Rica appeared in a number of “sexy” movies during the early 2000s. She said the decision to have breast implants was influenced by the fact that “it was going to be very useful for my career back then because they wanted me to transition from teeny bopper to sexy sexy na.”
Rica, in a previous vlog, admitted to having breast implants—which she later had removed.
Now, Rica admitted she regrets having breast implants in the first place.
“Now, when I look back, I’m like thinking I’m so regretful about it because I’ve opened myself to what was what an otherwise not present danger to my body katulad ng puwede talagang maging cancerous ‘to eh like to have an implant,” she said.
Rica clarified that she has nothing against women who have implants. Personally, however, she regrets having them because she was not able to study the implications and effects of the procedure to her body later on.
“Think about them not twice, thrice, but many, many times,” she said.
Banner photo from Instagram/Rica Peralejo-Bonifacio