Considered one of the first celebrities to bravely go public with her experience battling anorexia while growing up in front of the camera, actress Tracey Gold has since become one of the world’s most recognized advocates and role models for educating people on the emotional and physical dangers of eating disorders. Now, she is reaching out and helping women one-on-one to face their life threatening condition with Lifetime’s new unscripted series Starving Secrets with Tracey Gold, which will premiere on Friday, December 2, at 10:00 PM ET/PT, immediately following the debut of America’s Most Wanted.
Well remembered for her breakout role in the ‘80s hit sitcom Growing Pains, as a teenager Tracey constantly faced extreme pressures to appear thin on-screen, and at 19 years old she became anorexic, with the disease nearly taking her life by age 22. Today, Tracey is a true success story, thriving in life with a long-term marriage and four healthy sons. In each one-hour episode of Starving Secrets with Tracey Gold, she will work with women in the grips of anorexia or bulimia as she uses her own experience to reach them in ways no one else can. Along with a team of specialists, Tracey helps these women confront the reality of their conditions and find the treatment they need to begin to turn their lives around.
“20 years ago when I became ill with anorexia, there was very little information available to me,” Tracey explains. “The people and stories in my show will portray the horror and loneliness we experience in battling this terrible disease. Whether you know a wife, husband, son, daughter or friend in trouble, you will learn some very hard lessons and also see that for some, like me, there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
Tracey’s career as an actress started at the age of four, when she began working in commercials. She quickly moved on to dozens of parts in television movies and feature films, including Shoot the Moon, Marilyn: the Untold Story and Who Will Love My Children. As a child actress, Tracey honed her skills working alongside such legends as Jane Wyman, Bette Davis, Patty Duke and Gena Rowlands. Her first starring role was that of Young Missy Reynolds in the award-winning ABC miniseries, Roots. In 1985 Tracey was cast in the role of Carol Seaver on Growing Pains. She went on perform for seven years on that popular ABC comedy series. Following that success, she returned to drama with many movies of the week and portrayed the title character in For the Love of Nancy, which was a personal triumph for the actress, as the movie was based on the main character’s struggle with a severe eating disorder.
Tracey was introduced to her future husband, Roby Marshall, by her television mom from Growing Pains, Joanna Kerns. They reside in Southern California, where they raise their four sons, Sage, Bailey, Aiden and Dylan.
Lifetime has ordered six episodes of Starving Secrets with Tracey Gold, which is produced by GRB Entertainment, with Gary R. Benz and Michael Branton (Intervention) serving as executive producers, along with Tracey Gold and Ted Haimes (Aftermath with William Shatner). Hollie Lobosky (Celebrity Fit Club) co-executive produces, along with Rob Sharenow, Gena McCarthy and Sandy Varo Jarrell of Lifetime.
(Source: Lifetime)
