I was an anorexic who wanted to be four stone, says City supermum Dame Helena Morrissey with nine children
- Dame Helena Morrissey was interviewed for this week’s Desert Island Discs
- The ‘superwoman’ is one of only a few women to head an investment bank
- She said she struggled with anorexia as a teenager despite a stable childhood
Her stellar City career while raising nine children saw Dame Helena Morrissey dubbed a ‘superwoman’, but the high-flyer has revealed that she had to beat anorexia as a teenager.
The 53-year-old campaigner for gender equality in the boardroom – she is one of only a handful of women to have been chief of an investment bank – said her weight plummeted to just 5st.
‘I look back and the pictures are utterly hideous,’ Dame Helena tells today’s Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4.
Dame Helena Morrissey, the City supermum with nine children, has revealed she struggled with anorexia as a teenager
‘But, of course, in my mind I had this very warped image. I thought I was fat. I can remember getting on the scales and thinking, “I’m going to get down to four stone”.’
Dame Helena believes her illness may have developed over her realisation that she would one day have to leave her loving family.
‘My parents gave me a very stable background,’ she says. ‘I think this is probably me being a bit worried about growing up, being scared about growing up.
‘I think anorexia is now known to be a lot to do with wanting to have control over an aspect of your life. Controlling what you consume and completely controlling that – you can do that.’
The 53-year-old campaigner for gender equality in the boardroom is one of only a handful of women to have been chief of an investment bank
Dame Helena says her recovery began when she realised the self-destructive nature of her behaviour.
‘Suddenly the scales fell from my eyes and it sort of switched off,’ she tells host Lauren Laverne.
‘I wanted to get better and I wanted to be part of the world, and to grow up and to do what I could.’
Dame Helena’s ordeal inspired her to choose The Carpenters’ song We’ve Only Just Begun as one of her eight tracks.
Dame Helena also reveals she was ‘slightly disappointed’ not to have been chosen as Mark Carney’s successor as Governor of the Bank of England
She says she feels a ‘poignant connection’ to the music because Karen Carpenter died of anorexia at the age of 32.
Dame Helena also reveals she was ‘slightly disappointed’ not to have been chosen as Mark Carney’s successor as Governor of the Bank of England after being interviewed for the role.
And she recalls the sexism she suffered as a woman in the City after becoming a mother in the early 1990s.
As the only woman in a 16-strong team, she says she was sidelined for a promotion because bosses doubted her commitment to the job after giving birth.
The financier, whose daughter Florence and son-in-law Benjamin form the musical duo The Clementines, also selected their song Calm Down, saying it was apt during the current health crisis.
- Desert Island Discs is on BBC Radio 4 today at 11.15am