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“I wanted to share with my audience, not just the Dorinda you see on TV that is kind of being edited against five or six or seven other girls, but the Dorinda how she got there,” Dorinda Medley said during the April 5 episode of HollywoodLife TVTalk. And what you haven’t seen on The Real Housewives of New York City is the Bravo star’s struggle with anorexia and body dysmorphia, one of the vulnerable subjects that will be featured in her memoir and first book Make It Nice, which hits shelves on Aug. 17, 2021. It was a battle that not even her daughter, Hannah Lynch, “had no idea” about.
“What I really realize is, I think, a lot of women suffer from body dysmorphia. I think we only have that one label which is anorexia and we didn’t even have that label when I was growing up,” Dorinda told us. “I just realized I really struggled with it and I used [it] as a control mechanism because I grew up in a big family, it really showed a lot of my personality by going through that time in my life because I am kind of a control person, a competitive person, didn’t have a lot of the resources that other kids had, especially in the environment I had.”
“My parents put me in private school and stuff which was difficult!,” Dorinda continued. “My way of dealing with that, especially as a third child, was really to control my weight because that’s the one thing that I could really control and for me that was really powerful.” While these issues began in her childhood, Dorinda admitted that starring on RHONY for six seasons did impact how she saw her body.
“I think we all are constantly checking ourselves. Look at all the women that joined the Housewives. None of us looked like when we joined the first year,” Dorinda told HollywoodLife. “We’re there the first year we all look one way and by the third year — Thankfully, I haven’t done that much, but we’re always self checking and buying the same thing and wondering why the thing we bought on Net-A-Porter doesn’t look the same on you as it did in the model that was in the picture. Our society does that to us and then you add in the aging and you add in the this and you really have got to keep yourself in check and you can really get lost in it.”
Dorinda’s anorexia and body dysmorphia struggles are just one topic among many that will be featured in the book, which covers her life as she grew up and went on to become a respected entrepreneur as the founder of DCL Cashmere, a London socialite, a famous reality television star and now, an author. “The book starts here where I was born and guides me right up through the book through the last season,” Dorinda explained, after announcing her exit from RHONY in Aug. 2020.
After suffering from body dysmorphia, Dorinda now celebrates her health and figure. On April 5, the Bravo alum revealed that she lost 14 pounds thanks to her partnership with Nutrisystem. She debuted her fitness transformation in the swimsuit photo below!
Want to look and feel as fabulous as Dorinda? You can tune into her virtual “Doorobics” class, which she encourages attendees to dress up for! Proceeds will benefit The Ronald McDonald House on 73rd St. in New York City.