[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Christina Applegate is opening up about a crippling eating disorder she struggled with early in her career.
On Tuesday’s episode of her MeSsy podcast, the Anchorman star reflected on becoming aware of her weight and food intake at a very young age when a neighbor boy called her fat. By the time she turned 15, she’d landed her role as Kelly Bundy on Married with Children, and her mom put her on Weight Watchers:
“She was always competitive. 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.”
Shockingly, she admitted that some days she would just eat “five almonds.” “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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She described depriving herself of food as “f**king torture.” But while suffering from anorexia, falsely believed she looked “enormous.” She explained:
“I wanted my bones to be sticking out, so I didn’t eat. It was very scary to everyone on set because they were like, ‘Christina never eats.’ They talked to me about it.”
She even noted that she was SO tiny at one point that the costumer department had to take in a size zero:
“But to me, I was enormous.”
So, so sad.
Her co-host Jamie-Lynn Sigler also detailed her own struggle with body image and eating disorders while she starred on The Sopranos. Later, Christina admitted that she got liposuction on her legs at 26 years old. But she finally got a handle on her body image and eating disorder in her 30s, thankfully.
Sadly, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021 and subsequently gaining 45 pounds from the medication to battle that, an unhealthy voice in her head has returned:
“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.”
She specifically cited presenting at the Emmys in January, where she joked to the audience, “body not by Ozempic.” She reflected on the night:
“I made jokes at the Emmys because… it was like I could see what they were thinking… and I was so humiliated. The demon is saying these things to me.”
Ultimately, though, Christina wants to provide a good example for her 12-year-old daughter Sadie:
“I don’t want my daughter to see me not eat. I’ve been really clear about… trying not to put myself down… I have bad self-esteem issues and have my whole life. I don’t want that for my kid.”
We hope Christina stays as healthy as possible! Listen to more from her and Jamiye-Lynn’s raw conversation (below):
If you’re struggling with an eating disorder, there is help available. Consider visiting https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/ or call their hotline at (800)-931-2237 for resources.
