GMA Host Ginger Zee and the Terrible Events of 1991 that left viewers Heartbroken!

Ginger Zee‘s biggest battle hasn’t been in the ballroom, but within herself.

“It’s a moment in my life that I’ve not shared with a lot of people,” the “Dancing with the Stars” competitor told People of her struggle with an0rexia. “I know that a lot of people suffer from it and I hope that this will get the conversation going in the family.”

Following her parents’ divorce when she was young, Zee, 35, coped by finding another distraction.

“We were moving, I had to make new friends … and I needed to control something, so I was like, ‘I know what I’ll do — I’ll just not eat,’” Zee explained on Monday’s “Dancing” episode. “[Ages] 10 to 14 was a bulk of my an0rexia. I don’t think I even knew how bad it was at that time.”

The “Good Morning America” meteorologist credited her family, including her stepfather, for her recovery.

“My stepfather is a saint. He came into our lives and he taught me about nutrition and self-love and once I started to learn about taking calories in and working calories off, then I got obsessed with working out,” Zee shared. “Everybody goes through those stages. He helped me get out of that moment in my life.”

As the proud mom to baby boy Adrian, if Zee could offer words of wisdom to her younger self, it would be to focus on the future.

“There’s such a great life ahead. You don’t need to torture yourself,” she said. “You can beat this. This shouldn’t overtake you.”