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Desperate Housewives Child Star Reveals Cyberbullying Led to Her Eating Disorder at Seven Years Old: ‘They Said Things Like Ugly Fat Cow’
Friday, April 14th, 2023
It’s been more than a decade since Madison De La Garza last played Juanita on Desperate Housewives, and a lot has changed in that time.
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Desperate Housewives was ABC’s drama following a group of women who lived on the fictional street of Wisteria Lane. De La Garza played Juanita Solis — the adoptive daughter of Carlo (Ricardo Chavira) and Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria) — from Seasons 4 to 8 of Desperate Housewives. Juanita was the biological daughter of Hector and Carmen Sanchez and was switched at birth with Grace Sanchez (Carlos and Gabrielle’s biological daughter) by nurse Teresa Pruitt.
So where is De La Garza now? Read on for what’s happened since she played Juanita on Desperate Housewives and how starring in the show at six years old affected her then and now.
Who played Juanita on Desperate Housewives?
Who played Juanita on Desperate Housewives? Madison De La Garza was six years old when she made her debut as Juanita Solis on Desperate Housewives. In an interview the Heart of the Matter podcast in April 2023, De La Garza, who is now 21, revealed that online criticism over her appearance at the time led to an eating disorder at a young age. “The reactions I got to my character on Desperate Housewives were shocking,” she said. “A lot of people came at it in a way that they were ‘concerned ‘ for my health. I personally believe that that’s just not true. That was a coverup so they could just judge a six year old.”
De La Garza told the podcast that, while she wasn’t allowed to use the internet without supervision, she would secretly visit websites like TMZ and YouTube where she would spend “hours” reading “atrocious” comments about herself. “I was never allowed to be on a computer unsupervised at that age, but kids are very intelligent, especially my generation,” she said. “We know how to get on a computer when no one is looking or when your parents are asleep or taking a nap or cooking dinner. We can get on the computer if we want.”
She continued, “I would spend hours and hours reading comments online and the comments section of YouTube videos and comments on TMZ and I remember this website Ocean Up was a huge, huge thing and I would just spend a crazy amount of time reading through these comments. Most all of them were atrocious.”
As for what she read, De La Garza told the podcast that she would often see words like “ugly” and “fat” in comments to describe herself. “They said things like they wanted me to die because of what I looked like. It was horrible. ‘Ugly fat cow. I hope you get cancer and die because you’re so fat.’ Horrible, horrible, horrible things,” she said. “This is when I was six, seven, eight years old. I like to say that things are different now. I like to say that things have gotten a little better.”
She continued, “I worry sometimes that maybe things are a little less anonymous now, which is why people aren’t risking saying those things as much anymore. I don’t know if people are becoming more compassionate or if they don’t want to get caught. I’m not quite sure. Reading comments like that definitely affected my mental health and ultimately played into me developing an eating disorder at a very young age.”
She confirmed that the comments were what contributed to her eating disorder, which started when she was seven years old. “My first memories of trying to starve myself was at seven years old. A lot of it came from reading those comments and my family had no idea that this was going on,” she said. “My mom had no idea that I was seeing these things, that I was reading these things because I was very, very sneaky about it. I don’t blame her at all. It was literally impossible to stop me from seeing those things, and I was also very good at hiding and throwing away meals and saying that I ate them.”
She continued, “A lot of this happened while I was at school, so there was no way for my parents to know that I was restricting. It changed in different ways. I would enter eating disorder recovery and be fine for a couple years, and then it would come back. I would starve myself and then go into months of struggling with a binge eating disorder.”
As for where she is now with her eating disorder, De La Garza told the podcast that she’s healthy and two years into her recovery. “It’s definitely morphed and changed and gone back and forth,” she said. “Right now, I would like to say I’m two years into recovery and things are going really, really well, which is great to be able to say that. I don’t think it’s something that will ever be completely gone or it will ever be completely fixed. I think it’s the same as having an addiction.” She continued, “It never completely goes away. It’s something you have to continue to work on for the rest of your life. It will get easier, of course, but it will always be there.”
De La Garza also confirmed that no one in the cast or crew of Desperate Housewives ever talked about the comments explicitly with her, but she had the feeling that most people on the show, especially the wardrobe department, knew about the criticism.
“I think if they did, they never came out and said anything to me. They would go out of their way to tell me I was beautiful or tell me I looked really pretty that day or that outfit looked really cute on me and things like that,” she said. “The wardrobe department on the show was very aware of making me feel comfortable. I was able to speak up and say, ‘Hey, I don’t like the way I feel in these clothes. I feel very uncomfortable.'”
She continued, “At one point, they let me bring in my own jeans because I kept telling them, ‘The way these jeans fit, the texture, the fabric, it’s really bothering me. I can’t focus on my lines.’ They would let me bring in my own clothes to wear so I would feel more comfortable. I think they may have had some of what was going on because they definitely made it a priority for me to feel comfortable in my own skin, which I really appreciated it.”
De La Garza also confirmed that she never spoke about the criticism with Eva Longoria, who played Juanita’s mother, Gabrielle Solis, though she also had the feeling that Longoria knew about the comments based on how much of Juanita’s storyline consisted of comparisons between her and her mother. “We never spoke about it. I think she knew from the content of the show,” De La Garza said. “There was one episode where I went to school with a bunch of makeup on because girls in my class said I wasn’t pretty enough to be her daughter.”
She continued, “This was talked about literally in the script of the show. The whole joke with my character was that Eva was this thin, beautiful model and her daughter turned out to be quite the opposite. I think she was very aware this was going to affect me. We never explicitly talked about it. But she definitely went out of her way to make me feel like I was pretty and like I was special. She made me feel like I was family. If I ever did want to go to her with these things, I definitely could have.”
De La Garza also explained why she never went to anyone on Desperate Housewives about the comments. “I felt so ashamed that these comments were being written,” she said. “I didn’t even want to talk about it. On the off chance, they didn’t see the comments, I didn’t want to be the one to bring it up.” She continued, “It’s different now. I have learned to talk about it. I think it’s incredibly important to know how bad cyberbullying can be and the unthinkable is happening today. I think it’s important people are aware of that so they can look out for it and protect this next generation of children.”
Since Desperate Housewives, De La Garza has starred on Disney Channel’s Good Luck Charlie, CBS’ Bad Teacher and ABC’s American KoKo. She’s also had roles in movies like Gnome Alone and Subject 16.
Desperate Housewives is available to stream on Hulu.
For more on primetime shows, check out our photo gallery on the best nighttime soaps ranked.
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Image: Warner Bros./Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> Set in Orange County, Calif., Josh Schwartz’s teen drama made us with that, like Ben McKenzie’s Ryan Atwood, we, too, could be adopted by the Cohens, a family with even more love than money. And they had a <em>lot</em> of money. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> Five words — “Welcome to the O.C., bitch.” <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Chrismukkah, the holiday invented by Adam Brody’s Seth Cohen to merge both of his parents’ religions, became so popular, it even got a mention on <em>Grey’s Anatomy.</em></p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> Two words: Jane Wyman. The sour grapes that she served as viperish vintner Angela Channing kept us coming back for refills of the CBS soap from 1981-90 no matter <em>how</em> (hic) intoxicated she left us. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The Who’s Who of silver-screen stars that passed through the series, among them Lana Turner, Cliff Robertson and Kim Novak. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Robert Foxworth, who played halo-clad Chase Gioberti, turned down the role of devilish J.R. Ewing on <em>Dallas</em>.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Love It:</strong> The foul-mouthed Roy family proves that the only way in which the rich are truly different is that their dysfunctions play out in mansions and exotic locales. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> Beaten-down hubby Tom Wamsbgans telling wife Shiv, “I wonder if the sad I’d be without you would be less than the sad I get from being with you.” Ouch. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> The HBO hit’s bombastic patriarch, Logan Roy (played by the inimitable Brian Cox) originally was set to die in the pilot episode, setting in motion a battle for control of Waystar Royco.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> In 1990, the supernova that was ABC’s short-lived David Lynch series was something altogether new, a traditional soap on an alternately dreamy and nightmarish acid trip. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The Season 2 episode that revealed that Laura Palmer had been killed by her possessed father. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> In 2017’s Showtime revival, Lynch muse Laura Dern finally gave a face to Diane Evans, the FBI secretary to whom Special Agent Dale Cooper was always dictating messages.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Love It:</strong> Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount Network Western pulls no punches, and neither do any of the members of the rough-and-tumble Dutton family. Well, maybe Jamie. (But he’s adopted.) <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The outta-control Season 4 finale that gunned down John, took aim at Kayce and blew up Beth. Or <em>tried</em> to, anyway. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> As of Season 5, Sheridan has written or co-written every episode of the series, which has thus far spawned two prequels, <em>1883</em> and <em>1932</em>.</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy Everett of the Collection
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> As much as we may hate actually going to see the doctor, we can’t get enough of medical dramas set in hospitals. Plus, this long-running NBC series featured George Clooney, whose Dr. Doug Ross was the original McDreamy. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The Season 2 episode in which Ross saved a child trapped in a storm drain left us breathless and helped propel Clooney to superstardom. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> The series was created by Michael Crichton. Yes, the same man who gave us <em>Jurassic Park. </em></p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> There was no “there” to which Tyler Perry’s OWN soap wouldn’t go. Yet neither Jeffrey Harrington stabbing his homophobic Mommie Dearest in the breast implant nor Veronica Harrington setting her estranged husband on fire is <strong>What We’ll Never Forget:</strong> That would be Crystal R. Fox’s fierce portrayal of long-suffering Hanna Young. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> In 2022, Tika Sumpter, who played Candace Young, tied the knot with co-star Nicholas James, aka off-kilter Officer Justin Lewis.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> Over the course of its 2016-22 run, the creators of the NBC series proved master manipulators where our emotional well-being was concerned. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The unbreakable bond between the Big Three — the Pearson siblings. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> So upset were fans upon learning that a slow cooker was the cause of Jack Pearson’s death that the makers of the responsible appliance posted a Facebook message addressing the incident. “We love [Jack], and we love you, too. Don’t further add to our heartbreak by no longer using Crock-Pot Slow Cookers.” </p>
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<p><strong>Why We Love It:</strong> Unlike its American brethren, the British sudser makes a big deal of the “little people.” In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a “have” amongst the “have-nots” who populate Albert Square and hang at its beloved Queen Vic pub. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The 2008 tearjerker in which Dot Cotton recorded an episode-long farewell monologue to former hubby Jim. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> For 28 years running, June Brown’s Dot wore the same dress on Christmas Day. </p>
Image: Aaron Spelling Productions/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> In a way, we grew up with the characters on Aaron Spelling’s 1990-2000 Fox hit, which originated as the fish-out-of-water story of sheltered Minnesota twins transferred to schmancy West Beverly High. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The heated debates that erupted over Season 3’s Brenda/Dylan/Kelly triangle. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Since the network wasn’t initially as sold on Luke Perry or the character of Dylan McKay as Spelling was, the EP at first paid the future teen idol’s salary himself.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> While we could wax poetic about the shocking plot twists which befell the Lyon family as they fought for control of their hip-hop dynasty, the truth is, what we <em>really</em> loved was Taraji P. Henson’s trash-talking Cookie. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> Sadly, the show will likely be most remembered for star Jussie Smollett staging a fake attack against himself. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Henson darn near got a spinoff focused on her character, but that Cookie crumbled before the proposed show could launch.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Love It:</strong> Nineteen seasons in, Shonda Rhimes’ medical drama never forgets that sometimes all it takes to get a <span style="text-decoration: line-through">patient</span> series off life support is a transfusion of fresh blood. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> Season 5’s finale, which kept us waiting till the last second to learn whether Izzie Stevens or George O’Malley died. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Original cast member Ellen Pompeo was TV’s highest-paid actress — to the tune of $20M/year — when she stepped away from her role of Meredith Grey in 2022.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> The suburbs-set 2004-12 series beautifully combined slapstick comedy with dark drama while chronicling the lives of Wisteria Lane’s residents… as seen through the eyes of a dead neighbor! <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> Early in Season 1, Gabrielle Solis mowed her lawn in a full-length evening gown to prevent her hubby from finding out their hunky young gardener had been too busy tending to her needs to do the chore himself. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Said gardener was played by none other than a post-<em>Passions</em>, pre-<em>Chesapeake Shores</em> Jesse Metcalfe.</p>
Image: Fox/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> After Aaron Spelling spiked his <em>Beverly Hills, 90210</em> spinoff with <em>Dynasty</em> vet Heather Locklear as Amanda Woodward, it went from plain and boring to wild and crazy. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The Season 2 scene in which a back-from-the-dead Kimberly Shaw ripped off her wig to reveal her scarred head. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Years after the show ended, Locklear dated and even got engaged to former leading man Jack Wagner, who’d played her love/hate interest, Dr. Peter Burns.</p>
Image: Aaron Spelling Prods./Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> ABC’s answer to <em>Dallas</em> was heavy on the glitz and glamour and even heavier on the catfights and spectacles. (Moldavian massacre, anyone?) <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> Joan Collins’ Season 2 debut as Blake Carrington’s ex, Alexis, who elevated bitchcraft to an art form and moved the series out of Dullsville. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> The role of the scheme queen was originally supposed to go to Sophia Loren. Elizabeth Taylor and Jessica Walter were also pursued, Collins told <em>W</em> in 2018. </p>
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