America’s Got Talent 's Jackie Evancho Shares Osteoporosis Diagnosis Amid Anorexia Battle

Jackie Evancho is giving an important update on her health.

After sustaining multiple back injuries in a 2021 car accident, the America's Got Talent singer discovered that she had developed osteoporosis due to an ongoing battle with anorexia.

"They were abnormal breaks, breaks that you see in 80-year-olds," the 22-year-old, who placed second on the competition series in 2010, told People. "That's how I learned that my eating problems created osteoporosis."

But recovery wasn't easy.

"I had to eat [for my bones] to heal, and that really messed me up with my eating problems, because I was gaining weight to heal," she explained. "Once I finally healed, my disorder said, 'OK, now you've got to be really hard on yourself to get all of that out of you…and then some.'"

For Jackie, her eating disorder began to develop when she was 15 and going through puberty.

"I noticed that I looked a little bigger to myself, so I asked my mom, 'Do I look fat?' And she was like, 'No, no, that's just baby fat,'" she recalled. "So I decided that I was going to start to mildly diet and start working out regularly."

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However, that diet transformed into something that was no longer mild.

"When I started to go days without eating, in my head I said, 'I know that this isn't normal,'" she detailed. "I felt exhausted, moody, tearful, but after a bit of time, I started to feel nothing."

The coronavirus pandemic only made it worse. "The urge to restrict what I'm eating, on top of eating because I'm bored, and panic because I have this distorted view of myself in the mirror…it made everything really difficult," she explained. "There weren't distractions during COVID."

In October, she sought inpatient treatment. Today, she continues to see a nutritionist and therapist as well as undergoing eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR).

"I'm still struggling, but I'm fighting, which is good because a year ago I was giving in to it completely, and that's so dark and painful," she said. "I'm not healthy yet, but I have been able to implement healthy coping skills and better eating habits."

"There are still issues, but they are so much better," she added. "There are days where I feel helpless and hopeless, but I'm sick of living like this."

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