LOS ANGELES — “Designing Women” alum Delta Burke says her “ugly” experience on the hit CBS sitcom drove her away from Los Angeles, and her long-time struggle with her weight led her to use crystal meth to keep off the pounds.

Known for playing the sassy former beauty queen Suzanne Sugarbaker on the 1980s comedy, Burke opened up for the first time in years on “Glamorous Trash,” a celebrity memoir podcast hosted by TV writer and comedian Chelsea Devantez, who revisited Burke’s 1998 book, “Delta Style: Eve Wasn’t a Size 6 and Neither Am I.”

The 67-year-old actor told Devantez how she turned to crystal meth to slim down when she first arrived in Hollywood. She explained that while she was in drama school in London, a doctor gave her pills to help her lose weight, but when she came to the United States, she didn’t realize that the “Black Beauties” that she had been prescribed were illegal stateside.

“They were like medicine to me: take them in the morning so you won’t eat. It wasn’t a recreational thing. After you build up a tolerance to anything and it wasn’t working anymore,” she said, explaining that the Black Beauties eventually stopped working for her and that she had to start using something else.

“Nobody knew about crystal meth at the time,” she added, and a dealer who had previously obtained the Black Beauties for her introduced her to the new drug and told her to chop it up and “snort” it. But she didn’t feel comfortable with that administration of the narcotic, so she put it in her cranberry juice and drank it instead.

The “Women of the House” and “What Women Want” star said she would drink a glass before going to work on the early 1980s sitcom “Filthy Rich,” and then she “wouldn’t eat for five days.”

“And they were still saying, ‘Your butt’s too big. Your legs are too big,’” Burke said. “And I now look back at those pictures and go, ‘I was a freaking goddess.’”

The former Miss America contestant explained that “the look” of the time was Diane Keaton in “Annie Hall,” and she was encouraged to dress like the thin Oscar winner for auditions. But, she said, she “had bosom and hips and wonderful curves” that didn’t adhere to beauty standards of the era, lamenting that the press treated serial killers “kinder than if you put on some weight.”

The Emmy nominated star endured a media maelstrom over her figure during her later run on “Designing Women.” She was also hounded by fans who constantly asked her if she was pregnant. At one point, she said a person flung open her coat and said, “Let’s see, how fat are ya?”

“I’m so good at low self-esteem and self-loathing — I’ve really got that down — so when I start getting down about getting old and ‘I’m too fat’ and whatever, [my husband] Mac will remind me — and I’ll try to remind me — that in another year you’re going to look back at this and go ‘whoa, I was looking pretty good.’

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