When she was 15 years old, Christina Applegate gained major recognition for playing Kelly Bundy on one of the best blue-collar TV shows, Married…with Children. While playing the beautiful older daughter of the Bundy family garnered her a Young Artist Award with film and TV roles following the sitcom’s run, it wasn’t always for the teen star. Just recently, Applegate got honest about struggling with an eating disorder before and during her time on the beloved sitcom.
The veteran actress shared her candid story during the latest episode of her podcast, MeSsy with Christina Applegate & Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Both hosts used this particular installment to discuss their relationships with their bodies and discuss the challenges they've experienced in that regard. With that, Applegate opened up about experiencing body image problems at an impressionable age, explaining that an encounter with a neighbor and the influence of her mother cultivated it:
This little boy, who was my next-door neighbor, he touched my thigh, and he goes, ‘You’re fat.’ Now, mind you, I was far from that, but that stuck with me. I mean, obviously. I’m 52 years old. I was maybe eight or nine years old, and the word ‘fat’ was brought into my vocabulary. And, from that day on, it was – sorry, mom – but my mom was obsessed with her weight, so she would always say things like, ‘You could stand to lose five pounds.’ She put me in Weight Watchers when I was 15. She was always competitive. If I got down to 110 [pounds], that’s a low number for someone who’s my height, she'd be like... 'Oh’ I’m so mad. How'd you do it? How’d you get down to 110?' And the reason was, I finally had an eating disorder. That was the reason. 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.
A number of celebrities have spoken about their experiences with eating disorders. This year alone has seen some specifically discuss the relationships they had with food at a young age. For instance, in the middle of her Titanic success, Kate Winslet struggled with eating in order to stay thin in Hollywood, as she was made to feel looking good was connected to weight. Even more recently, Brittney Snow depicted eating disorders in her directorial debut, Parachute, which draws inspiration from the time that she herself checked into a treatment facility for one at 19.
When it comes to Christina Applegate, after watching the documentary Decline Of The Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years and seeing the winner of Miss Gazzarri’s white minidress, she was inspired to change her Married...with Children character's clothing style. However, wearing more form-fitting dresses compared to her rock-grungy look made her eating disorder more apparent to those around her:
And then I played Kelly Bundy, and it was my idea to wear those outfits, because I was so amazed by this rock culture and rock sluts. I thought it was the most hilarious thing I’d ever seen. … And then I kinda shot myself in the foot, because then I had to wear those outfits, and I wanted my bones to be sticking out, so I didn’t eat. And It was very scary to everyone on set because they were like, 'Christina never eats.' And I didn’t… They have talked to me about it.
During that time, the Primetime Emmy winner also had to deal with the “pretty gross” sexualization of Kelly Bundy, who was written as a “dumb blonde” who typically found herself at the receiving end of sex-infused jokes. The actress admitted to being weirded out at the idea of grown men owning posters of her teen self. Her heavy association with the ditzy character also made it hard for the star to land a lot of big-screen roles outside of the long-running Fox show.
The Anchorman actress continued to say that while she was never bulimic, she would punish herself for eating and, as a whole, it was "fucking torture" for her. The perceptions of her body would increase while trying on clothes, and she recalled one specific situation, which involved a friend of hers:
I just deprived myself of food for years and years and years. It was torture. It was fucking torture. I remember being a size zero at one point, and I was trying clothes on at Fred Segal. And I was trying on these zeroes, and a little sliver of my skin was hanging over the side. And I said to my friend, ‘Oh god, I look too fat in these,’ and she literally grabbed me and said, ‘Stop it, you sound insane.’ But, to me, I was enormous.
Christina Applegate said it was a real struggle for her to eat normally again. It wasn’t until she was in her 30s that the Golden Globe nominee no longer felt controlled by her eating disorder. But she almost thought she was going to slip back into old habits. When Applegate was diagnosed with MS, the medication to treat the disease caused her to gain 45 pounds. She had to train herself not to let the “demon” in her head taunt her in order to prevent her eating disorder from resurfacing.
It's truly unfortunate that the fan-favorite actress had to go through such an ordeal at such a young age. However, it's inspiring that she managed to move past it. One would hope that the sentiments she shared on the podcast will serve as an inspiration for those dealing with eating disorders or body image challenges.
Those who want to see Christina Applegate's work on Married…With Children can stream the show with a Hulu subscription. Also, stay up to date on more recent shows using the 2024 TV schedule.
