Former Disney Channel star Christy Carlson Romano writes in a new memoir that she once feared the Los Angeles party scene would kill her, describing cocaine use and an eating disorder during a period of her life that stood in sharp contrast to her wholesome on-screen image.
Romano, 42, best known for “Even Stevens” and “Kim Possible,” details the experiences in her upcoming book “Once Upon a Trainwreck: The Rise and Fall of a Child Star,” set for release Oct. 6. An excerpt obtained by People describes the first time she tried cocaine, at a Halloween party at Paris Hilton’s Los Angeles home.
According to the excerpt, Romano was given the drug by a party guest named Edie, whom she describes as an assistant at a marketing firm who was well-connected in Hollywood circles.
“Even though I’ve been to a million clubs, I’ve never seen cocaine before, never done it, but I know what the white lines on the table are. I’ve always sworn I’d never try it,” Romano writes, per People.
She recalls that after she inhaled the drug, Edie and other partygoers laughed about “getting the Disney girl to do blow for the first time.”
Romano also writes that she became bulimic “just to feel something” during this period, and that her weight dropped to a size 00 in pants. She describes spending roughly six months in Los Angeles sleeping through the day and going out at night, using cocaine again after that first encounter, before deciding she had to get out.
“I can’t take the shallowness of Hollywood and clubs anymore,” she writes. “It’s going to kill me.”
A Public Accusation Against a Former Co-Star
While promoting the book, Romano also used Instagram on Wednesday to accuse her “Cadet Kelly” co-star Shawn Ashmore of ghosting her because she “wasn’t famous enough.”
“Shawn and I dated for the summer we filmed ‘Cadet Kelly’ and for a few months after. I was eventually ghosted and had heard ‘his team’ thought I wasn’t famous enough for us to keep dating. Hollywood is brutal for a young girl,” Romano wrote, noting she was 18 at the time.
She said she wrote the memoir to “expose everything that actually happens in this business.”
A Struggle She’s Discussed Before
Romano has spoken publicly about her eating disorder before. In an October 2021 YouTube video, the 5-foot-7 actress said her weight had dropped to a dangerously low 105 pounds during that time.
“I remember drinking a lot and I remember smoking lots of cigarettes and I remember just not eating and waking up at, like, later parts of the day and not prioritizing my health in general,” she said. “I look at pictures from that time and I just know how unhappy the lifestyle was for me.”
Readers struggling with an eating disorder can find support through the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) at its website or by calling (800)-931-2237.
