Tracey Gold is opening up about the difficult times she had growing up in the spotlight on the family sitcom Growing Pains.
During her time as a guest host on Shannen Doherty’s podcast “Let’s Be Clear,” Gold shared that she started to feel powerless while working on the show. She felt targeted by jokes, particularly from her on-screen brothers Mike (Kirk Cameron) and Ben (Jeremy Miller), playing the character of Carol Seavers.
Gold expressed that initially, she was not too bothered by the jokes about her weight, but things changed when she returned from a summer break having gained some weight. The jokes about her escalated and became more hurtful, making her feel increasingly affected.
She said she raised the issue with the writers, who ultimately told her that she was being too sensitive about it.
Feeling the need to address the situation, Gold mustered the courage to talk to her older male co-stars despite finding them intimidating. She emphasized that speaking up was out of character for her but necessary as the jokes were causing her distress, especially since she had never encountered such comments about her weight before.
Gold admitted the jokes were still “hurting my feelings,” so she began to negotiate to have certain jokes removed. “You’re not talking just about Carol anymore. You’re talking about me, Tracey Gold. And now I have to be in front of an audience that’s laughing at me and my body and my weight, and it became tough,” she said.
Her experience on Growing Pains ultimately fueled her battle with anorexia. Gold revealed a doctor later put her on a diet of 500 calories a day when the studio wanted her to lose weight. But the positive attention she received on set after inspired her to keep going.
“Something hit me and I was like, ‘I will not be the butt of anybody’s joke again,’” she said, admitting she was “basically starving” all the time.
The actress later went for inpatient treatment in 1992 after the show was canceled.
“I was told to keep your mouth shut and be a good girl on a set,” Gold said. “But finding my voice with the anorexia was the really big thing.”
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