Katharine McPhee Reveals True Horror of Bulimia Recovery  7/30/06

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American Idol star Katharine McPhee faced her eating disorder head-on when she first sat down to eat with fellow bulimics in a rehabilitation centre.

The sexy brunette's parents found the singer help at an eating disorders program but McPhee had no idea she'd be dining with other troubled girls on her first night in rehab.

She recalls, "I remember the first day, my first meal where I sat down with the other girls and I cried at the table. It was just too overwhelming.

"I was just going face to face and seeing all the other girls struggling at the table, and them seeing myself actually eating as fast as I could to get out of there."

The American Idol runner-up, who hit number one in America earlier this summer with her version of standard Somewhere Over the Rainbow, conquered her eating disorder before becoming an Idol contestant late last year (05).

She adds, "Now I feel like, 'Ha, ha, ha, I can eat whatever I want.' If someone sees me eating, like, a plate of French fries, I'm, like, very happy to be like, 'I'm eating fries.'"