"I wanted my bones to be sticking out."
Christina Applegate revealed she struggled with an eating disorder early on in her career. In a new episode of MeSsy, her podcast with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Applegate recalled a time when she “deprived myself of food for years and years and years.”
"It was fucking torture," she said of her struggle with anorexia, before adding that it all started when a boy neighbor called her fat growing up. When she was cast as Kelly Bundy on Married With Children at 15 years old, her mom signed her up for Weight Watchers.
"She was always competitive," Applegate remembered. "If I got down to 110 [pounds], she'd be like…'How'd you do it?' And the reason was, I had an eating disorder. I would eat five almonds in a day. And if I had six, I would cry and I wouldn't want to leave the house. And that stuck with me for years and years and years."
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Her character became known for her fashion sense, which included miniskirts and crop tops, and at the time, Applegate said she "wanted my bones to be sticking out, so I didn't eat."
Applegate added that eventually, the cast and crew noticed and approached her about it. "It was very scary to everyone on set because they were like, 'Christina never eats.' They talked to me about it," she said. There was even a point when the costume department had to take in a size 0 for her.
"But to me, I was enormous," she explained.
Applegate said she still struggles with negative thoughts today. After gaining 45 pounds as a result of M.S. and her medication, the actress said, "The demon in my head is coming back really loud and it's scaring me. I need to be aware of it so I don't start falling into bad habits of hurting myself."
Applegate has “never discussed” her eating disorder in a public forum, though she’s historically been candid about her health. The actress has opened up about her battle with multiple sclerosis numerous times since being diagnosed in 2021.
Last month, Applegate shared that she was in the middle of a relapse. “I haven’t slept for 24 hours because my eye is doing something weird, where every time I close my eye to go to sleep, my right eye starts to shift like this,” she said. “My legs have never been this bad, so I don’t know what’s going on, like, no energy, legs are just done, like, can’t get circulation, I can’t get them to stop hurting.”
If you’re struggling with disordered eating, NEDA has a confidential and toll-free National Eating Disorders helpline.