Kate's Secret

Kate's Secret is a 1986 television movie starring Meredith Baxter Birney, Ben Masters, Tracy Nelson, and Edward Asner, about a seemingly "perfect" suburban housewife and mother who is secretly suffering from bulimia nervosa. It was not based upon an actual person, but rather an attempt to realistically portray the eating disorder. To those on the outside, Kate Stark (Meredith Baxter Birney) leads an idyllic life; a successful husband (Ben Masters), an adoring young daughter (Summer Phoenix), and a beautiful home. But beneath the surface, her life is less than ideal; a husband preoccupied with his career, a domineering mother (Georgann Johnson), and a dark secret that not even her closest friends know: Kate is bulimic. As the pressures in her life begin to mount, Kate obsessively diets and exercises, and habitually binges and purges while adroitly hiding her eating disorder from those closest to her. When Kate's bulimia finally leads to a frightening accident that makes it clear to...