The 37-year-old skateboarder is opening up about his past.
Former Jackass star Bam Margera is opening up about his struggles with an eating disorder in a recent episode of Viceland's Epicly Later'd. The professional skateboarder appeared on the show alongside his parents, April and Phil, who weighed in on their son's difficult past.
“He always wanted to have this very slim, slim look and a lot of it kind of happened when he became good friends with [HIM vocalist] Ville Valo,” April said in the interview. “[Ville] is the loveliest man ever, but he never ate, he just drank. I think Bam started sipping on a beer or sipping on a something because he liked the way he looked.”
“I remember when me and Ville Valo were out in London and he woke up at noon, opened up the mini bar and cracked open a beer. That was the first time I was introduced to day drinking,” Margera admitted.
The Viva la Bam alum's mother recalled that her son's destructive behavior slowly slid into bulimic tendencies.
“We would go out to dinner and then he would immediately excuse himself and go to the bathroom," April said. "I said, ‘Are you throwing up?’ He says, ‘Yeah, yeah, sometimes I throw up and that way I’m not gonna get fat.’"
She continued, "It really hurts me when people make comments like, ‘You look like you gained some weight there. Hey, wow, Bam… you’re looking like your dad.’ I don’t respond, but I feel like saying, ‘He was drinking alcohol and he was bulimic and that’s why he was thin.’”
The 37-year-old insists that the fame and limelight got to his head, eventually contributing to drug and alcohol abuse.
“I didn’t officially start drinking until maybe 24 or 25,” he revealed. “Then the rockstar life and drinking spun out of control.”
Margera now lives in Spain with his wife, Nicole Boyd, and they are expecting a baby in December.
Hear more on Margera's past in the video below.