Battling a decades-long eating disorder, Diane Keaton embraces her scars of aging but is called “ugly” and “fat” by cruel fans

Expanding her portfolio of work as she matured, the Baby Boom star then appeared as the mother in Father of the Bride (1991) with Steve Martin, Manhattan Murder Mystery–her first with Allen since Annie Hall–and in 2000 she played in The Godfather Part III as the divorced wife of the mafia boss.

n 2003, she starred in 2003’s Something’s Gotta Give, where her comedic prowess was recognized by the Academy with a nomination, and the film would be her first box office hit since 1996’s First Wives Club, with Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn.

A consummate professional, her co-stars rave about her performances. “She’s nothing if not fascinating, and working with her, she’s very unpredictable, which I like,” said Jack Nicholson, who co-starred with Keaton in Something’s Gotta Give. “She’s very disciplined about it all. She approaches a script sort of like a play in that she has the entire script memorized before you start doing the movie, which I don’t know any other actors doing that.”

Unlike her character in the film, who falls in love with much the older boyfriend (Nicholson) of her daughter, Keaton was quite fond of her much younger co-star, Keanu Reeves.

Recalling her on-screen kisses with Reeves, who’s 20 years younger than her, Keaton told the Sydney Morning Herald, “It was pretty embarrassing, and for Keanu, too. It has to do with time of life. It’s instinctive, (while kissing him) you go, ‘Uh, probably not!’” The charming actor continued, “And Keanu was going, ‘Definitely not!’ He was trying to be polite. But he’s so beautiful, it’s stupefying. It was a guilty pleasure. A very guilty pleasure.”

Neither actor has confirmed rumors that they were romantically involved off screen.

Leading with an abundance of humility, Keaton is an advocate of natural aging, and proud of her silvery mane, along with her appearance as a woman in her late 70s.

“I tell myself I’m free to do whatever the hell I want with my body. Why not? I may be a caricature of my former self; I’m still wearing wide-belted plaid coats, horn-rimmed glasses, and turtlenecks in the summertime. So what? Nobody cares but me,” she said in an interview with the Daily Beast. “I don’t see anything wrong with face-lifts or Botox or fillers. They just erase the hidden battle scars. I intend to wear mine, sort of.”

Though actor, author, director and singer is one of Hollywood’s most respected actors, she is not immune to unsolicited judgements from the public.

In 2014, after she appeared at the Golden Globes, an online user targeted her with a Tweet that says, “Wow. Diane Keaton got fat.”

Recently, without any apparent provocation, another critic said, “Well Diane Keaton isn’t nice, she ugly inside and out!”

What needs to be understood is that the gorgeous star–with an enviable slim physique–is in recovery for a toxic relationship she has with food.

Appearing on the Dr. Oz Show, Keaton revealed, “It was horrible. It was, of course, the lowest point of my life…I was a fat person, I was an obese person, who had somehow tricked myself and managed to hide it. So when you’re living with a lie for four years…” Explaining her battle with bulimia, she continued, “All I did was feed my hunger, so I am an addict. It’s true. I’m an addict in recovery, I’ll always be an addict. I have an addictive nature to me.”

Her insecurities were triggered at the very start of her career when she was teased with the lead in Hair, in exchange for her losing 10 pounds. The production also offered an extra $50 to the actors willing to strip down at the end of Act 1. Keaton refused.

To deal with the pressures, she ate, a lot. And then she threw up, emptying her stomach of everything she consumed.