A former star from TV’s Next Top Model contest has told how she nearly starved herself to death trying to get what she thought was the perfect body.

Neele Bronst, then 20, dazzled supermodel host Heidi Klum in the German version of the show with her looks and charm.

But behind the scenes Nelle, now 27, was suffering from anorexia and then bulimia, she had revealed.

Nelle told German media how she started crash dieting a year before the show in 2017.

She said: “When I saw the results, I was motivated to lose even more weight until at some point I stopped eating solid food.”

But Nelle, from Hamburg, then moved on to binge eating and developed bulimia.

She explained: “When I tried to eat food, I immediately threw it up.”

Her lowest weight was a shocking 52 kilogrammes (114 lbs) for her 1.77 metres (5ft 8ins) tall frame.

Neele sought professional help but stopped her therapy when she was picked to go on Germany’s Next Top Model.

She made the final 20 candidates but said: “Modelling didn’t necessarily help me live a healthy life and eat healthy.”

And she said that eating is still a challenge, adding: “I try to eat a balanced diet, but it doesn’t always work.

“Some days I fast so I can eat a pizza or a burger in the evening.”

She said that a lot of her thoughts still revolve around food and her weight, adding: “Certain events can set me back again. I pay strict attention to my weight.

“Gaining weight is bad for me. I eat irregularly, and when I eat a lot, I compensate with exercise.

“An eating disorder, like other addictions, is never really cured.”