Ginger Spice discusses eating disorders

LONDON, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Geri Halliwell, Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls, says she suffered from eating disorders while living and performing with the British pop band.

Halliwell, 31, said she felt fat compared to her bandmates -- Posh, Sporty, Scary and Baby -- and was driven to destructive binge and purge eating cycles, London's Sun reported Friday.

"I went into the Spice Girls, and I was one of the curvy ones. Living with other girls you are going to compare a bit," Halliwell told 200 health professionals at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.

"When you are in your disease it's very sneaky. I didn't want to share that I was going back to my hotel room and bingeing on cakes," she said. "It wasn't something I was very proud of."

The singer, who has made $26 million from the band and her solo career, said she first became bulimic when sharing an apartment with a "very thin" woman in Spain as she was trying to break into showbiz.

Halliwell went through rehab for her eating disorder three years ago.

"For a time (bulimia) helped me do what I had to do," Halliwell said. "You blame everything on your body."