Jane Fonda candidly chronicled her past struggles with bulimia for the first time this week.

The actor opened up about her secret life with the eating disorder on Wednesdays episode of Call Her Daddy and told podcast host Alex Cooper she once believed it would kill her before she reached 30.

In my 20s, I was starting to be a movie actor, Fonda said . I suffered from bulimia very, very bad. I led a secret life. I was very, very unhappy. I assumed I wouldnt live past 30 ... I didnt go out. I didnt hardly date cause I was unhappy and I had this eating disorder.

Fonda told Cooper the bulimia appeared so innocuous at first but grew into a terrible addiction.

It harms the way you look, said Fonda, who has since become an icon for her activism and fight against climate change . You end up looking tired. It becomes impossible to have an authentic ... Your day becomes organized around getting food and then eating it, which requires that youre by yourself and no one knows what youre doing.

The actor famously released New York Times bestseller Jane Fondas Workout Book in 1981 and launched her own line of related tapes the following year, according to CNN . Her public advocacy for physical health, however, didnt mirror her private life.