Anger as Kate hailed as pro-anorexia role model on U.S. websites

By Katie Nicholl





Even slimmer: Kate, pictured in London five years ago (left) and while on a tour of Canada after her wedding earlier this year





Like most brides, Kate Middleton lost weight in the build-up to her wedding in April.



But the Duchess of Cambridge has now become a ‘role model’ on controversial pro-anorexia websites because of her continued weight loss.



Once a healthy size 10-12, Kate, whose waist is now so tiny she managed to make super-thin Hollywood star Nicole Kidman look dumpy during a recent dinner event in California, is now estimated to be a UK size 4, known as size 0 in the States.





While the Duchess has always been slim, sources have told The Mail on Sunday that much of her wardrobe has been altered because she has become more slender.



Yesterday friends said the Duchess will be ‘horrified’ to learn that she is being hailed as a success story on ‘pro ana’ internet sites.



One told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Kate is very slender but she certainly doesn’t have an eating disorder.



‘She’ll be horrified that she is on these sites. Yes, she has lost weight but that’s largely down to the stress she has been under and all the travelling she has done recently.’



The Duchess’s athletic sister Pippa, who runs marathons, also features on some of the ‘pro-ana’ sites but it is Kate whose weight loss is the subject of forum debates with young women wanting to know the secret to her shrinking waist.



One post asks: ‘Is anyone else sort of getting hacked off by how much weight Kate Middleton is losing?



Athletic: Pippa Middleton is also mentioned on some of the pro-anorexia sites





‘I mean I’m happy for her and all, getting married . . . but I am very jealous. I swear she used to be really quite chubby during her uni days.’



The sites also chart Kate’s weight loss with photographs from her university days to more recent pictures of her on tour when she is noticeably slimmer.



Celebrities such as Victoria Beckham and Mary-Kate Olsen are also cited as role models on the sites.



While a spokesman for the Duchess declined to comment, the eating disorders organisation Beat described the websites as ‘dangerous’.



‘They frequently encourage people to believe that eating disorders are a lifestyle choice and not the serious mental illness that they truly are,’ said a spokesman.





source:dailymail