Christina Applegate gets brutally honest about trauma, abuse and struggles with MS

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Christina Applegate spent much of the last year writing her memoir while confined to bed, where she now spends most of her days at her Laurel Canyon home. Since her diagnosis with multiple sclerosis in 2021, every day brings exhaustion and symptoms, and on this particular afternoon in late February, she describes the day as just plain awful.

“I feel really awful,” she said, explaining her illness. She held up a heating pad she’d named Jake Ryan, after the character from “Sixteen Candles,” and mentioned it was helping her feel a little better.

She explained that her pet, Jake Ryan, passes away frequently, requiring replacements. Currently, she has a new Jake Ryan resting on her lap, which brings her a lot of joy. She considers him her closest friend.

I’ve been hearing a lot about Christina Applegate’s memoir, “You With the Sad Eyes,” and it sounds incredibly raw and honest. She says readers might actually feel like they’re the ones doing the comforting, which is powerful. She really dug deep, opening up her journals from when she was just thirteen to share her life story. And it wasn’t easy – she tackles some seriously tough stuff. Of course, it has her signature humor – you know, the kind fans expect from her work on shows like “Married… With Children” and “Dead to Me.” But she also doesn’t shy away from really dark chapters, like growing up with an absent father, a chaotic family, childhood sexual abuse, battling body image issues, and even an abusive relationship, all before she was diagnosed with MS. It sounds like a really brave and vulnerable look at her life.

Applegate explains that writing this book wasn’t about finding emotional release, but simply about getting everything off her chest. She jokingly describes her readers as becoming her therapists. While she acknowledges many people share similar experiences with abuse and trauma, she didn’t write the book specifically to connect with them. The idea came about when she was asked if she wanted to write a book, and she decided to start from the very beginning of her life – a difficult beginning. She warns that the book will contain very painful material, mixed with lighter moments, as her editor suggested (though she’s kidding!). Ultimately, she says, that’s just a reflection of her life.

Despite dealing with serious topics, the book also includes entertaining and gossipy stories. These range from her teenage crush on Johnny Depp (who was older) to the time she left Brad Pitt at an awards show to be with a rock musician. Her daughter, Sadie, and her relationship with Sadie’s father, Martyn LeNoble, are also highlights of the book, offering moments of joy.

Christina Applegate’s early life was deeply affected by trauma. Growing up in the creative and unconventional Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles, her childhood was marked by instability and pain. Her father left when she was very young, and her mother, a singer and actor, battled addiction and the lingering effects of past abuse. Applegate describes her mother with compassion, but also reveals the profound impact of a man—her mother’s partner from ages 3 to 7—whom she calls “the worst man imaginable.” This individual brought significant danger and distress into their lives, creating an unsafe environment. Without adequate support, Applegate sometimes found herself in the care of people who were not trustworthy. In her book, she bravely shares a particularly harrowing experience from age five, revealing that a caregiver sexually abused her.

Applegate shares her feelings about her parents, saying, ‘I loved my dad, though he wasn’t very involved in my life. He was a good man, and I miss him dearly since he passed away last year, but it’s hard to talk about.’ She explains that her mother was her primary parent and consistently supportive, even through difficult times. ‘I adore my mom,’ she says. ‘She’s 84 now, and it’s becoming increasingly painful to think about losing her too.’

Her eyes show it.

The book powerfully connects back to its title, inspired by Cyndi Lauper, highlighting the sadness Applegate carried. She repeatedly points to this sadness as a way of showing how emotional pain built up over time, including the hurt she experienced while in an abusive relationship during the peak of her TV show, “Married… With Children.” In her journals, she explored her inner struggles, often with a sense of what was to come. She writes that looking back at entries from over thirty years ago, she feels a striking premonition of how those early, difficult experiences would affect her life.

From a very young age, both hardship and a way to cope with it became clear in her life. She began acting as an infant, appearing on “Days of Our Lives” at just three months old with her mother, and joined the Screen Actors Guild before starting kindergarten. Losing herself in these fictional worlds would repeatedly provide a vital escape from her difficult reality.

Applegate advises people to stay strong and handle their responsibilities, no matter how difficult. That means showing up, focusing on the task at hand, and being a good teammate, leaving personal problems at home.

I’ve always been such a fan! It’s amazing to look back at her career and see how it really took off with ‘Married… With Children’ in the late 80s and early 90s. She actually didn’t even want to do comedy at first, but she absolutely nailed the role of Kelly Bundy, and that show was so important in building up the Fox network. Eleven seasons as Kelly, and then she just kept proving herself with films like ‘Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead’ and the hilarious ‘Anchorman’ and ‘Bad Moms’ series. She also did some fantastic TV work in shows like ‘Jesse,’ ‘Samantha Who?,’ ‘Up All Night,’ and especially ‘Dead to Me,’ which even earned her a Tony nomination for ‘Sweet Charity’ back in 2005! Getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2022 felt like a full-circle moment for her – she’d been dreaming about that since she was a little girl, driving with her mom to see ‘Star Wars’ and noticing all the stars! Sadly, she hasn’t acted since finishing ‘Dead to Me’ in 2022, as that’s when she received her diagnosis and started treatment. It’s heartbreaking, but her talent and impact are undeniable.

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This includes a photo of Christina Applegate as a young woman, taken from her memoir, “You With the Sad Eyes.” It also shows Applegate receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an event she writes about in her book (published by Little, Brown & Co.).

She says that dance was even more important to her than acting, truly a core part of who she is. For many years, she’s maintained a dance studio at home. Though she still dances when she can, she now mostly enjoys watching videos of Bob Fosse, often from the comfort of her bed.

Does she dream about dancing?

“Are you deliberately trying to upset me?” she asked, her voice flat. “You’re making me emotional about things. Of course I miss dancing – it’s something Sadie and I used to do all the time, about five years ago, and now it’s just…gone.”

Applegate is very open about living with multiple sclerosis. She discusses it frankly in interviews, her book, and on her podcast, “MeSsy,” which she co-hosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who also has MS. This directness is a shift from how she talked about her 2008 breast cancer diagnosis. She avoids minimizing the difficulties and doesn’t offer empty encouragement, instead focusing on sharing her honest experience. For Applegate, this is part of a larger goal: to encourage genuine connection with others.

She explains that she often downplays the difficulties of her situation when she talks about it, but her listeners on the ‘MeSsy’ podcast have told her it’s okay to be honest about how much it all ‘sucks.’ She admits she used to put on a brave face during interviews like those with Oprah and on ‘Good Morning America’ when she was battling breast cancer, trying to stay positive. However, she now realizes that wasn’t helpful, either to herself or potentially to others. While she’s glad if she’s inspired anyone, she wasn’t truly inspiring herself – she was just sad and struggling. What she really wants now is a supportive community where people affected by MS – both those living with it and their caregivers – can connect and share openly, because this disease brings so much sadness.

Awards

Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini have a close friendship both on and off screen as their characters in ‘Dead to Me’ suggest. In a new interview, they share personal insights about dealing with loss, health challenges, and the importance of trust.

She’s not ready to talk extensively about her experience right now, she explains. However, her publicist adds that Applegate will soon be launching a new online platform called Next in MS, where people can share their own stories of living with multiple sclerosis. She plans to share more about her personal journey and insights on the platform when it launches.

With glasses on and her hair neatly tied up, Applegate visibly brightens when the conversation shifts to reality TV – a welcome distraction while she was writing her book. She admits to being a big fan of shows like “The Traitors,” “Real Housewives,” and “Below Deck” – essentially, anything on Bravo. “That’s all I need,” she says. When I mentioned I was a few episodes behind on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” she immediately exclaimed, “Oh my God, that Amanda – I just can’t! No, no, no, no, no.”

You know, I’m just going to be honest… I’ve been texting with Jason, Captain Jason from “Below Deck Down Under,” actually. He’s a friend, that’s all. I have a feeling he might not be thrilled to hear me say that, though!

After finishing the book—which took two and a half years to complete—she finally got some sleep. However, the stress came back when she started recording the audiobook.

It was incredibly painful – she wasn’t even sure if ‘hurtful’ was strong enough a word. Having to sit and read those things aloud, forcing herself to relive them, was a really difficult experience. She anticipated criticism – people thinking she was just some celebrity complaining – but it was about revisiting something awful. She didn’t enjoy rereading it at all and just wanted it to be over with, so she tried to read it quickly. People asked her to slow down, but she felt she needed to get back to bed because she was angry at the person who wrote it. That’s how intensely she felt.

It eventually leads to reflection on the idea of “happiness.”

She admits that if asked if she’s ever been truly happy, she’d have to say no, acknowledging it’s a strong statement. She recalls a moment in Big Sur where she did feel happy, but hasn’t experienced that feeling again. She believes it’s important to discuss what happiness even is. For her, genuine happiness is now found in the simple moments with her daughter – her kisses, hugs, and declarations of love. When her daughter suggests listening to music, dancing, or just being silly, that’s what brings her joy. She describes her daughter as her lifelong source of happiness.

Her daughter looked through some of her old journals. While Sadie hasn’t actually read the book her mother signed for her, she did thank her mother for it before playfully tossing it aside – she’s just really busy with school right now.

I don’t want to speak for my daughter’s feelings, but she’s really struggling with losing her mother. I’m still here, but I’m not the same person I was before – I can’t do all the things we used to enjoy together. It’s incredibly difficult for her, and she finds it hard to talk about, so I’m not going to share any more details.

As our half-hour session wrapped up, she seemed to brighten, thinking she heard her 15-year-old daughter come home. But it was a false alarm. I jokingly told her I thought one of her legs – she playfully nicknames them after celebrities and TV characters, like Meghan Markle (her right leg) and Tootie (her left leg), and even scolds them when they bother her – was acting up.

Okay, so my friend was telling me about her little sister, Tootie, having a really rough day – let’s just say Tootie wasn’t being very pleasant. Apparently, Meghan’s been super patient with her. She even said she can’t even go to the bathroom with Tootie right now because of how she’s acting! But Meghan’s handling it like a champ, and I told her, ‘You’ve got this, girl!’ It’s just one of those days, you know?

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2026-03-03 14:37