Designing Women’s Delta Burke Reveals She Turned to Using Crystal Meth for Weight Loss
Actress Delta Burke has been open about her battles with weight over the years, but she shocked fans by revealing she turned to using crystal meth in the 1980s after other methods didn't work.
Delta, 67, appeared on the April 19 episode of "Glamorous Trash" podcast, telling host Chelsea Devantez that before landing her iconic role on Designing Women, she was using weight loss pills she called "Black Beauties," while appearing on the dramedy Filthy Rich, which ran for two seasons from 1982 to 1983.
She would "take them in the morning so you won't eat," adding, "They were like medicine to me." After Delta built up a tolerance to the pills, someone on Filthy Rich suggested she try methamphetamine for weight loss.
"Nobody knew about crystal meth at the time," Delta told Chelsea. "[They told me,] 'You chop it up. You snort.' I said, 'I don't want to snort it.' So, I put it in cranberry juice and [drank] it … and wouldn't eat for five days."
Even after using meth, "They were still saying, 'Your butt's too big. Your legs are too big.' And I now look back at those pictures and go, 'I was a freaking goddess.'"
Delta's profile became even higher when she landed the role of former beauty queen Suzanne Sugarbaker on Designing Women. She starred on the show from 1986 through 1991, claiming she ultimately left over continued criticism about her weight, saying she was "emotionally too fragile" and "couldn't cope with" the scrutiny.
"I thought I was stronger. I tried very hard to defend myself against lies and all the ugliness that was there and I wasn’t gonna win. I’m just an actress, you know. I don’t have any power," the former Miss Florida 1974 explained, adding there was one time "on the set, when it got to be really bad, and I wasn’t handling it well with a smiling face, my whole body language changed. I would kind of hunch over ... I just tried to disappear."
"Hollywood will mess your head up. And I had always thought, 'I want to be a famous actress.' I thought that meant that you would be a famous and well-respected actress, but that’s not what it meant. And the moment I became famous, it was like, 'Oh no, no, no. This is not what I had in mind at all. I don’t think I want to be this anymore.' But then it’s too late," Delta recalled.
The former sitcom star ultimately had a fallout with the show's producers and in a 1990 interview with 60 Minutes, called the Designing Women set a "difficult, unpleasant workplace."
After she exited the show after season 5 in 1991, Delta claimed she was "subjected to psychological abuse" on set and had been bullied over her weight.
However, producers and costars claimed the actress' attitude changed after she began dating husband Gerald McRaney. At the time, producer Doug Jackson told TV Guide, "Immediately after Delta started dating Gerald, there was a marked change in her relationship with all of us."
He added, "She was a fun, kicky girl at the start. After Gerald came on the scene, she came on the set one day to announce to the cast, 'Gerald says I am the star of the show and I should be boss.'"
Delta said those claims weren't true during her podcast appearance.
"I love my life truly for the first time. And I love him desperately," she said of Gerald, whom she's been married to for 35 years.
The Orlando, Florida, native added, "I know that I'm safe and I'm loved. I didn't feel that there," referring to Designing Women. "I wanted to be so much, and I didn't get to be what I wanted to be."