Late actress Diane Keaton had a signature style, but did you know that opting to wear hats and turtlenecks was a choice beyond fashion? In an interview with PEOPLE, she revealed that her go-to style is wearing “a turtleneck, suit, large belt and of course a hat and glasses!“
She added, “Some things will never change for me“, which does make one wonder if there is something deeper at play here. As we know, Keaton was in her twenties when she was first diagnosed with skin cancer.
The actress has been vocal about her battle and has also admitted in the past that she never really took care of her skin or worried about protecting it from the sun, like many. Things changed later, and she vowed to keep herself safe, but in style.
Keaton told the Los Angeles Times in 2019 (via Cosmopolitan) that she experienced “many skin cancers” in her life, and that she wore those iconic hats to “protect” herself from harmful radiation. The same goes for her “protective” turtleneck jumpers.
While Keaton learned her lesson the hard way, she urges others not to make the mistakes she did. She added, “You’ve got to put the sunblock on, you’ve got to go to the dermatologist, you have to take care of yourself and pay attention.”
Diane Keaton’s Battle with Cancer
Diane Keaton was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 21, and she revealed that the disease was family’s history. As per the LA Times, her Aunt Martha suffered from skin cancer, which was so bad that the doctors had to “remove her nose
Moreover, her father and brother had basal skin cancer. She added, “It’s tricky with this skin cancer. That’s why you’ve got to put the sunblock on.” While skin care and sun protection became a regular part of her life, there was a time when she did not care about them at all.
She stated,
“Back in my 20s, I didn’t pay attention much. I didn’t research and didn’t really care, and that was stupid because it’s dogged me my entire adult life, even recently. I didn’t start sun care until my 40s.”
Decades later, Keaton was also diagnosed with squamous cell cancer, which took two surgeries to defeat.
After her cancer diagnosis, Keaton became sort of a spokesperson for sun protection. She believes that had she taken it seriously in her younger days, she may not have had to battle “20 skin cancers.”
She said (via THR), “…have had 20 skin cancers had I had sunscreen and took it seriously. When I was growing up, it wasn’t even around or discussed. I’m so protected now. I take vitamin D because you do need some of that.“
How Bulimia Affected Diane Keaton’s Life
Cancer is not the only health struggle Diane Keaton has had to go through in her life. When she was 22 years old, the actress was offered the lead role in Broadway’s Hair (1968). The production had one condition: lose ten pounds. As per the Daily Mail, that’s where her eating disorder was first triggered.
However, Keaton developed an unhealthy obsession with her weight when she was much younger. Talking about bulimia in her 2011 memoir, Then Again, her mother recalled how the actress would constantly be “chewing a big mouthful or sucking candy” while pleading in her diaries, “I wish I knew how she stays so thin.”
Her bulimia reached an unfortunate stage where she would be eating 20,000 calories in a day and purging herself by vomiting it all out. This was when she was dating Woody Allen and would excuse herself from dates to run back to her apartment and eat large quantities of food.
Keaton’s diet at the worst point of her battle: “a typical dinner was a bucket of chicken, several orders of fries with blue cheese and ketchup, a couple TV dinners, a quart of soda, pounds of candy, a whole cake and three banana cream pies.“
She wrote in her memoir, “I think I’m a sister to all the rest of the women — and men as well — who have had some kind of eating disorder. I’m a part of the team.“
It was Allen who helped her get through the tough period of her life by convincing her to go to a psychiatrist. Keaton attended sessions five days a week for 18 months.
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