The Tragedy Of Christina Applegate Keeps Getting Sadder

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

This article includes discussion of eating disorders, sexual assault, and domestic violence.

Christina Applegate is the very embodiment of perseverance and grit. Life has repeatedly thrown curveballs her way, and somehow, she's still standing. In the actor's memoir, "You with the Sad Eyes," Applegate revealed the unvarnished truth about herself and her life, getting impressively candid about how her troubles started very early in life. Applegate's mother was not only a heroin addict, but she also brought an abusive boyfriend into their home, who didn't pull any punches when it came to the young Applegate. Her father wasn't around, having left the "Anchorman" star and her mother behind before Applegate could even celebrate her first birthday. By the time she was five years old, the actor had already endured more than any child should. She was molested by her female nanny, and in her book recalled how, even at five, she knew what was happening was wrong. 

"I felt sick and scared and sad," Applegate wrote. "I never fully felt comfortable being touched, and that's true still." The "Dead to Me" star didn't hold back in her memoir, but during an interview with "Good Morning America," she clarified that writing the book wasn't necessarily cathartic either. "It's really pukey for me," Applegate admitted, before sharing that, during the most difficult times of her life, she felt utterly alone. "I still feel alone sometimes in the sense that, you know, there's this whole thing that we all want to feel understood," the actor said, explaining that this has rarely been her experience. Applegate's childhood was, unfortunately, only the beginning of her hardships.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Christina Applegate rose to fame on the hit comedy "Married... with Children," which aired throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The up-and-coming actor was 15 years old when she bagged the star-making role of Kelly Bundy, but the pressure of having cameras and public attention trained on her at all times took its toll on Applegate's self-esteem. It didn't help that the character's wardrobe consisted of barely there outfits, which she felt pressured to look flawless in. The youngster had her first brush with an eating disorder at the age of eight after a boy told her she was fat, and being on TV only exacerbated it. "To wear those clothes — clothes that would show if you ate something as tiny as a single grape — I had to lean even deeper into my eating disorder," Applegate wrote in her memoir.

During a 2024 episode of her podcast, "MeSsy," the celebrated actor spoke candidly about her eating disorder, noting that her mother, who signed her up for Weight Watchers, didn't exactly help. Eventually, she almost stopped eating entirely. Applegate lost so much weight that the show's fashion department had to alter her clothes because a size 0 was too big for her. "But to me, I was enormous," she said. It took decades for the actor to finally heal. As she told  "Good Morning America," "It's 20 years of my life that I didn't eat."

If you need help with an eating disorder, or know someone who does, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).

Having been in the spotlight from a young age, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Christina Applegate dealt with crippling self-esteem issues from a young age, something she acknowledged on "Good Morning America" that she still battles to this day. In "You with the Sad Eyes," the "Sweetest Thing" star detailed how she could never find any beauty in herself, despite the world's validation. People named her "The Most Beautiful Person in the World" in 2009. And yet, Applegate couldn't fathom why anyone would consider her worthy of the title. "I had no idea I was attractive to anyone," she wrote. "Truthfully, I have never known how to deal with the fact that I'm a successful person and yet I hate myself." 

While appearing on "Good Morning America" in March 2026, Applegate confirmed that low self-esteem is something she continues to wrestle with. "I don't know why we can't find self love," she admitted, explaining how her daughter actually told her that she looked beautiful right before the interview but she didn't notice it herself. "I don't see it," the beloved actor elaborated, wondering aloud, "Why can't we see our freaking beauty? [...] We don't see what other people see, and it's really devastating and demonstrative and not cool, man."

During a February 2026 interview with People, Christina Applegate opened up about her past romantic relationships and how she inadvertently ended up following in her mother's footsteps. "My mom always said, 'I never met a junkie I didn't like.' And that kind of was how I rolled," she confessed. In her late teens, the "Samantha Who?" star weathered an abusive relationship, just like her mother did when she was a child. Applegate fully acknowledged that she was attracted to people who were a little bit broken, thinking she was the one who could finally fix them but sadly noting, "You can't." Things went from bad to worse when the actor fell pregnant while she was still in that abusive relationship. 

Her memoir, "You with the Sad Eyes," includes journal entries from Applegate's 19-year-old self reflecting on her situation. Taking stock of the abuse she was enduring from her boyfriend and the constant fear that he might actually kill her was what made Applegate ultimately decide to have an abortion. The actor didn't want to do it initially and was afraid of how guilty she might feel in the aftermath, but she finally decided it was the best decision. The "Hall Pass" star tried to keep it under wraps because, as she put it in her journal entries, "His family will hate me when they find out that I killed their family member because they don't believe in it." Years later, her own daughter read her words.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

Christina Applegate has dealt with serious health issues throughout her life. In 2008, the actor was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 36. Applegate was a high-risk patient; her mother had breast cancer too. Doctors discovered something was amiss, and after getting a biopsy, the "Married... with Children" alum was told that she had breast cancer. Further testing revealed she also carried the BRCA gene, which significantly increased her chances of developing breast cancer again in the future. When Applegate first got the news, she kept it quiet. "I went through five weeks of work without telling anyone that this was going on in my life," the actor told Oprah Winfrey in a subsequent interview (via CNN).

After finding out that she also carried the BRCA gene, Applegate opted to undergo a double mastectomy, and while it was undoubtedly the right choice for her, it was also the most painful one — both physically and emotionally. "I cry at least once a day about it because it's hard to overlook it when you're standing there in the mirror," she confessed. Applegate added that, despite everything, the cancer felt like a blessing because it made the actor appreciate her life more, but she notably walked back these comments in her memoir. 

"Here's how I feel about that interview now. It was bulls**t," the beloved star wrote. "I was acting like Little Ms. Warrior, but that's not how I really felt." Applegate worried that her comments had hurt more than they had helped, especially for women who were going through their own breast cancer journey at the time. "There I was, talking about f**king blessings when they were going through a living hell," the "Anchorman" star acknowledged.

In "You with the Sad Eyes," Christina Applegate shared heartbreaking confessions about her health issues, specifically her multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis. The "Bad Moms" star was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease in 2021. MS is a debilitating condition that affects the central nervous system, causing muscle weakness, memory problems, changes in vision, and numbness, per the Cleveland Clinic. In her memoir, Applegate recalled the moment her doctor delivered the devastating news: "Something clicked off in my head. All emotions short-circuited. I went numb, completely numb."

The actor was in the middle of filming "Dead to Me" at the time, and the show would become her last hurrah in Hollywood. "When I got sick, I realized quickly that my career was finished, and so prematurely," Applegate pointed out in her book. "I can't get up at 5.30 a.m., can't sit in a car for long periods on the way to set, can't bear people touching my face. I just can't do it any more." She's openly discussed her symptoms in interviews as well, telling "Good Morning America," in 2024, "I live, kind of, in hell." Likewise, during a 2025 appearance on the "Armchair Expert" podcast, Applegate confessed, "This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me in my entire life. I hate it so much." 

The beloved star's book explains how excruciating her symptoms are — she likened the pain of her skin to "third-degree, fourth-degree, fifth-degree burns." The worst part about the disease, however, is that it has limited the things Applegate can do with her daughter, Sadie Grace LeNoble. The two used to have dance parties together and go for hikes, but, "Now she just sees this person in a bed, and it depresses her beyond anything."