Tracey Gold is talking openly about a challenging time in her life.
Gold, 55, talked about her time as a kid actor and her role as Carol Seaver on Growing Pains on the January 26 episode of Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty. Despite having the “best memories of Growing Pains,” Gold said that her battle with anorexia, which she attributed to some of the things that happened on set, also defined her time on the program.
When Gold was cast as daughter Carol in Growing Pains in 1985, it was the biggest break of her career after years of performing as a child actor. Alan Thicke and Joanna Kerns were their parents, while Kirk Cameron portrayed her brother Mike. Although Gold acknowledged that she was nervous because she had “never done comedy before,” the “first few years” were a “great, fun experience.” “The cast was really outstanding,” she said.
But as time went on, the prose became more “edgy.” She informed me, “Unfortunately, I believe it became at my expense during that time.” “Mike Seaver began making fat jokes about Carol Seaver.”
“Being the best person on that set is one thing you have to know about being a child actor,” Gold explained. As a child performer, you have to get over the fact that adults might laugh and forget their lines. You ought to be aware of your lines. “You keep your mouth shut and carry out your duties.”
Gold said she had “no voice” when the fat jokes started, but she was able to “brush it off.” But she put on weight while on summer vacation from the series. She told me that once I returned, the jokes intensified and grew more cruel.
After some time, Gold “tried to find [her voice]” and went to see the “intimidating writers.” “Can we negotiate?” she asked. It hurts my feelings. But because Gold was the eldest of five girls, the writers would “tell her” that “you don’t know what this is like because you don’t have any brothers.” Brothers and sisters treat each other in this way. Additionally, they clarified that they weren’t referring to her as obese since “if it was true, we couldn’t say it.”
But Gold was still uncomfortable. “You are no longer just discussing Carol. Tracey Gold, you’re referring to me. And now I have to stand in front of people who are making fun of me, my weight, and my physique, and it’s hard,” she said.
Gold’s father, who served as her agent, was then told by the program that she needed to reduce weight. She eventually saw a doctor, who gave her a dangerous 500-calorie diet.
“All of a sudden, everyone on the set came running up to me and said, ‘Oh my God, you look so wonderful, you look so wonderful,'” she remarked.” “I suppose everyone meant well, but I was wondering if I had previously been so embarrassing. Was I fooling myself by thinking I could play Carol Seaver on national television and be the target of their jokes?
“Something hit me, and I was determined not to be the object of anyone’s joke again,” she reported. Due to her strict adherence to the regimen, she was constantly “basically starving.” When Roby Marshall, her current spouse and ex-boyfriend, expressed concern about her, she responded, “You’re in Hollywood, and everybody just kept giving me compliments.” Because Carol was in a state of turmoil after being promoted to homecoming queen, the story of Growing Pains also showed her losing weight.
She claimed that the set had a “element of misogyny to it,” which was one of the reasons she chose not to seek help. She was only a few years older than the “beautiful actress of the week,” whom the producers were constantly bringing in and “sexualizing.”
She remembers, “It was really a boys’ club.” She did, however, say that she did not attribute her eating disorder to the writers. She informed me that I was the one who was most vulnerable to it. “I think something similar would have happened if a cheerleading coach had told me the same thing while I was on the cheer squad. I would have followed a route of restriction. Was my exaggeration a result of being on TV? Maybe. “I’ll never find out.”
“Having spent so much time as a child actor, I’ve come to believe that everything these producers say to me must be true. And you pay attention to them because their perspective matters,” she added.
She was finally told by the producers that she needed to put on weight, but she was unable to do so. When Gold was in the worst of her anorexia in 1992, the producers sent her to an inpatient treatment center and stopped making Growing Pains. In 1992, she talked about her experience with eating disorders on the cover of PEOPLE.
She said she was “very proud” to have spoken out about her anorexia in the magazine during the podcast. She recalled, “My voice with the eating disorder suddenly became more powerful after that.” She also appeared on a cover in 1994.
“They told me to keep quiet and act appropriately on set,” Gold revealed. “But the really big thing with the anorexia was finding my voice.” She wanted others to realize that it is a “real disease” and not just “vanity.”
