'The unfiltered truth': She was an '80s It girl, but behind the scenes Christina Applegate endured a series of hardships

Christina Applegate's battle with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) has dominated headlines about the actress for the past several years, but her hardships began in childhood.

Applegate, 54, has chronicled her experiences of childhood poverty and abuse, a teen abortion, anorexia and a lifetime of insecurity in her memoir You With The Sad Eyes, out now.

The Married... with Children star was a '80s and '90s It girl, finding fame alongside future stars including Johnny Depp, Matthew Perry and Brad Pitt and she dated many of them.

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In fact, she once ditched Pitt, 62, at an awards ceremony, leaving him to drive her mother home. The actor reportedly held a grudge against Applegate for that move for years.

Depp, 62, was the most famous of them all at the time, thanks to his hit TV show 21 Jump Street.

Applegate played Kelly Bundy in Married... with Children from 1987 until 1997.

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The young actors would spend time together, and that's when Applegate met Pitt.

She invited him to be her date to the MTV Video Music Awards, where she was presenting the Best Group Video award alongside rock star Alice Cooper (which, by the way, went to Talking Heads for Wild Wild Life).

"He was already part of my extended friend group," she wrote in the book, adding that they had been "platonic friends for some time".

That friendship developed into a relationship.

However, Applegate, who was just 17 at the time, left the VMAs with Skid Row's Sebastian Bach instead of Pitt.

He was left to drive Applegate's mother and friend Lori home.

After years of holding a grudge, Applegate and Pitt buried the hatchet.

This was just one of many examples of the star's struggles with fame, made worse by being abandoned by her father at a young age, living in poverty with her mother, childhood abuse allegedly at the hands of her mother's boyfriend, a teen abortion, and after becoming an actress, a life-threatening battle with anorexia.

Early struggles

Applegate coped with her troubled home life by keeping extensive journals, which she used to help write her heart-wrenching book.

"I've always kept meticulous records, all too aware that those pages were the only place I could share the unfiltered truth," she wrote in he memoir.

Her father Robert Applegate was a musician who left the family when the actress was a young child, although they would reunite later in life before his death in 2025.

His departure left Applegate and her mother Nancy Priddy to struggle on alone, which forged a strong bond that even survived the physical abuse the pair would suffer at the hands of her mother's boyfriend.

"My mother always did her best for me. But we suffered the twin scourges of poverty and trauma," she wrote.

During those years, even hamburger buns were a luxury.

"We had both been left by a loved one; we were each a mirror to the pain the other was feeling."

Applegate said her mother's partner would physically abuse them both for years, describing an early and devastating introduction to sex at the hands of a female friend when she was only five.

When Applegate was 19, she had an abortion. She had fallen pregnant in a toxic relationship and felt she had no other choice.

She describes this experience as "too painful to force into my narrative or meaning" but wrote about it extensively in her journals and recounted it for the purposes of the book.

Following the abortion, Applegate wrote, "Well, it's over. I feel pretty okay. Just kind of woozy", adding that she knew "it was for the best".

The rise of a child star

It was Applegate's mother who got her started on the acting path, and living in LA made this easier.

Her first job came when she was five months old in a Playtex clothing commercial.

She would then record radio commercials, before auditioning for TV roles and being cast in Married... with Children when she was 15.

Applegate didn't accept the role at first, wanting to experience a 'normal' childhood, but was eventually convinced to join the cast when the actress originally cast as Kelly Bundy, Tina Caspary, didn't work out.

The show wasn't a hit at first, but eventually become a juggernaut and enjoyed a successful 10-year run.

Applegate has spoken about being typecast as a "ditzy blonde" and turning down the role of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde in an effort to avoid being typecast. It ultimately went to Reese Witherspoon.

Behind-the-scenes battle

It was during the show's run that Applegate struggled with disordered eating.

"I dug myself into a hole with that character ... because I had to be skinny," Applegate wrote.

"I had a vision of the specific clothes I wanted her to wear, and to wear those clothes, I had to lean even deeper into my eating disorder ... If I did eat something, I'd punish myself."

She described anorexia as "terrible".

However, she would eventually recover and enjoy a healthier body image – before being dignosed with MS in June 2021 at the age of 49, which saw some of those damaging thoughts re-entering her mind as her steroid treatment caused sudden weight gain.

Big-screen success

Applegate's first movie role was in the 1991 cult classic Don't Tell Mum The Babysitter's Dead, which wasn't a box office hit, but later became a cult classic.

She went on to enjoy a steady career as a movie star, including in hits such as The Sweetest Thing alongside Cameron Diaz and fellow MS sufferer and long-time friend Selma Blair.

She also starred in Vacation, Bad Moms, and her most noteable movie role was Veronica Corningstone in Anchorman and Anchorman 2, starring alongside Will Ferrell and an impressive cast of Hollywood A-listers.

Applegate said it was on the set of Anchorman that she learned how to master "improv", having spent most of her career in scripted comedy.

Having fun in the audition helped her land the role, and she said Ferrell wanted her so badly, he took some money out of his agreed fee to pay to her.

The movie boasted an ensemble cast with Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Fred Willard and many cameo spots filled by the likes of James Marsden, Vince Vaughan and Tina Fey.

"It was total dream stuff," she said.

Applegate described hit TV series Dead To Me as her dream role, and it would be her last. By the time she completed filming the final season, she had lost much of her mobility.

Health battles

Applegate had already beaten breast cancer when she was diagnosed with MS. She believes her eventual diagnosis could be linked to her childhood trauma and early health battles.

"The disease eats away at all the things we take for granted," she wrote.

She has shared much of her battle in her podcast MeSsy, which she co-hosts with Sopranos star Jamie Lynn Sigler who also lives with the disabling autoimmune neurological disorder.

The condition has left her with pain, fatigue, and the loss of much of her mobility. Some of the most recent pictures of the actress show her using a walking cane and a wheelchair.

Appleton has famously named her failing body parts proper names, declaring, "My entire body is Sylvia." Barbara is her right arm. Stanley is her left. Her right leg is Meghan Markle, but she doesn't explain why this is.

However, the pair likely crossed paths on the set of Married... With Children as Meghan's father Thomas Markle worked as a lighting director on the show, and the Duchess of Sussex has told stories of spending time on set.

Her left leg is Tootie, Gail is her gallbladder, her liver is Olivia, and her kidneys are Calliope. Her brain is Stuart.

This choice to name her body parts has helped her deal with her loss of physical control and as a way of dealing with "a body that has let me down".

Once a dancer, now non-working actress, this has hit Applegate hard: "Every little stinking part of it sucks, not least of which, there's only downhill with MS."

She grieves the loss of being a hands-on mum to her daughter Sadie, 15, whom she welcomed with husband, Dutch musician, Martyn LeNoble.

Applegate speaks of the comfort her daughter now offers her, lying down in bed with her.

"I know Sadie's heart is broken at what has become of me," she writes.

When they lie down in bed together, Sadie often tells her mother she feels "safe".

Anyone needing support with eating disorders or body image issues is encouraged to contact the Butterfly National Helpline on 1800 33 4673 (1800 ED HOPE) or support@butterfly.org.au. Eating Disorders Families Australia (EDFA) offers carer support, including support groups, on 1300 195 626.