London, July 4 (Reuters): British actress Keira Knightley today denied rumours she was suffering from the eating disorder anorexia.

Speaking a day after a revealing dress she wore at the London premiere of her latest film prompted questions about her weight, she added that she had a family history of the illness.

“It was really weird, they said that to me yesterday,” the 21-year-old told a news conference, referring to the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest in which she stars alongside Johnny Depp.

“They asked: ‘How does it feel to be always called anorexic?’ I had no idea that I was. I can safely say that I’m not.

“I’ve got a lot of experience with anorexia. It was in my family. My grandmother, and my great-grandmother suffered from it and I had a lot of friends at school who suffer from it so I don’t think it’s anything to be taken lightly.”

Knightley, who got her big break in Gurinder Chadha’s Bend It Like Beckham, has also starred in Pride and Prejudice and Love Actually besides acting in the Pirates of the Caribbean series.