A Young Michelle Pfeiffer On The Border Between A Diet And A Cult

Anyone who knows anything about Hollywood should know that Tinseltown can make people slip into some really questionable behavior. We’re not naming any current offenders here: you know who you are. But one actress, who has come out with an entertaining – or maybe terrifying, it’s difficult to decide – story from her naive youth, is former “breatharian” Michelle Pfeiffer. If you’ve never heard the term, you’re probably better off for it, because the breatharian diet sounds suspiciously like the start of an eating disorder.

Nowadays Pfeiffer is happy and healthy, but it wasn't always so.

Under the influence of a friendly couple, a young, 20-year-old Pfeffer, new to the Hollywood lifestyle, essentially stripped her diet of everything – she wasn’t allowed food or even water, just sunlight. For those of you, who remember basic biology, that’s not even enough to sustain a photosynthesizing plant, let alone an adult human.

Pfeiffer recalls her experience with the controlling couple in The Sunday Telegraph’s Stella magazine: “They were very controlling. I wasn't living with them, but I was there a lot and they were always telling me I needed to come more. I had to pay for all the time I was there, so it was financially very draining.”

Pfeiffer isn't alone in her extreme dieting adventures, though hers has been an especially dire case.

"They believed that people in their highest state were breatharian,” Pfeiffer recalled. Ultimately, it was information and the help of then-husband Peter Horton, that cleared Pfeiffer’s head and helped her get out before it was too late. "We were talking with an ex-Moonie and he was describing the psychological manipulation, and I just clicked."

She realized, "I was in one" — a "cult."

So, um, we’re not saying that all diets lead to brainwashing or anything, but it’s always good to remember that food is not the enemy.

At one point, the actress realized that she was in a cult.