Four years after the fact, Nicole Richie has decided to address that whole “Rachel-Zoe-sickly-skinny” phase she went through back in 2006.

Remember this:

In the March issue of British Marie Claire, Nicole talks about that dark time.

Richie, who was once a size 0, caused some fans to worry in 2006 when she was photographed looking alarmingly frail on the beach in a bikini. Around the same time, she addressed her thinness in Vanity Fair: “I know I’m too thin right now. I’m not happy with the way I look right now.”

“I felt it was a little unfair to say someone has an eating disorder when they don’t,” she says. “It’s extremely insulting and irresponsible. An eating disorder is serious and it’s a disease.”

I’ve always believed that Nicole was not suffering from an ED but got caught up in the high fashion-sample-size-Rachel-Zoe world for a minute. She definitely starved her body for a short period, lived a very unhealthy lifestyle and in the end paid for it with a DUI arrest.

Strangely enough, she came out the other end a healthy young mom with a thriving career and business. For every three Brittany Murphy’s..Hollywood spits out one Nicole Richie. Not ideal but at least there’s hope for so many other confused and pressured young celebrities.