Unfortunately, like many young girls, Meredith Vieira was made to feel bad about her body for no real reason when she was a kid. Perhaps the first instance of this for her was when she was riding a bike around her neighborhood, when one of her friends made a comment about her backside. “To this day… I remember all of it,” she revealed on Today. “And to this day, it sticks in my head.”
After that, Vieira was mortified and desperate to get skinner, no matter what the cost might be. “I went on this ridiculous diet,” she continued. “All I did was drink Tab and eat like five Ritz crackers a day for the entire summer. [I was] maybe 10 when I did that for like a month and a half.” Indeed the damage was done, as Vieira already had body image issues, despite the fact that she was so young.
The trauma from this incident runs deep, though Vieira doesn’t blame her friend — rather, she says it was bound to happen. And her appearance is something she continues to struggle with, especially because she’s on television.