Jackie Evancho speaks out about her eating disorder

Jackie Evancho is opening up about her personal struggles with an eating disorder and Osteoporosis.

The singer, 22, tells People magazine that she's struggled with disordered eating

since she was a teenager, the America's Got Talent alum — who placed second in

2010, at just 10 years old — knew she needed help last year after she was

hospitalized following a January 2021 car accident that broke her back in two places.

"They were abnormal breaks, breaks that you see in 80-year-olds," Evancho explains.

"That's how I learned that my eating problems created osteoporosis.

So now I'm a 22-year-old with osteoporosis."

But the bone-disease diagnosis didn't immediately compel Evancho to address her food issues.