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A secret fight. Just before you land the role of your life on The Royals, Alexandra Park received news that changed her life forever: she was fighting type 1 diabetes.
Now, for the first time, 32-year-old Everyone Is Doing Great recounts her journey in a new memoir perfectly titled Sugar High.
“I had the feeling that I had a unique story to tell because I was diagnosed shortly before my dream job,” said Australian native Us Weekly exclusively about her first book. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes trying to balance this condition with my career, and I think this is a fairly common experience for type 1 diabetics. This can be a very isolating state that makes you feel hopeless at times. “
Park is confident that she can now help others who are going through some type of battle.
“I just wanted to share an experience with someone trying to overcome a setback in what they want in life,” says the Ben Is Back star. “Hopefully the book will make you feel a little less alone and as if anything is possible for you.”
Courtesy Alexandra Park
Read an exclusive excerpt from Sugar High below and get the book, which is now available online and in stores.
In the few hours I spent in the studio that day, I switched between two pretty contradicting headspaces. On the one hand, I felt like a champion and even flirted with the idea that this diabetes thing might possibly add to my desired nervous attraction. On the other hand, I felt a creepy kind of numbness mixed with shock and disbelief.
I don’t think I fully believed what just happened. Maybe part of me felt like I was getting a call from the doctor telling me they’d done something wrong. I think part of me felt like it might just be temporary. In any case, the magic that always came with the set allowed me to keep my head in the game, and in those few hours I managed to almost completely forget about it.
After I left the studios it got a lot harder to ignore the elephant in the room. It was as if as soon as I got into the car there was actually a big fat elephant sitting next to me. I named the elephant Ellis.
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