Christina Applegate Wanted 'Bones to Be Sticking Out' on Married With Children, Details Anorexia Struggles

On the latest episode of her MeSsy podcast with co-host, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, the Dead to Me actress recounted suffering from an east disorder while filming Married with Children.

"I just deprived myself of food for years and years and years," Applegate explained. "It was f---ing torture."

When she was 15 and just beginning her 10-year run on the sitcom, Applegate said her mom put her in Weight Watchers.

"She was always competitive," she recalled. "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."

As her character Kelly Bundy on Married with Children, Applegate often wore short skirts and revealing tops, with the longtime actress recalling that she wanted her "bones to be sticking out" in the risqué looks.

"So I didn't eat," she shared.

Her condition got so bad, that it began worrying the cast and crew,

"It was very scary to everyone on set because they were like, 'Christina never eats.' They talked to me about it," Applegate said. She remembers being so small in fact, that at one point, the costume department had to take in size 0 clothing to make it fit. "But to me, I was enormous," she added.

While Applegate said she's "never discussed" her eating disorder in public, her struggles with food and body image go back all the way to her childhood, when she recalled a neighbor boy calling her fat.

It was until she was well into her 30s that she no longer felt controlled by her eating disorders.

These days, Applegate, has different struggles with her weight. After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021, she gained 45 pounds, due in part to the side effects of MS and the medication she takes for the disease.

"The demon in my head is coming back really loud and it's scaring me," she told Sigler, who also suffers from the disease. "I need to be aware of it so I don't start falling into bad habits of hurting myself."

That "demon" was there in January, when Applegate she walked onto the Emmy stage where she received a roaring standing ovation. Joking with the audience, Applegate quipped, "Body not by Ozempic."

On the podcast, Applegate said that joke was a defense mechanism. "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."

While her struggles with body image are something she's still currently battling, she wants her daughter, Sadie, to grow up with different messaging.

"I don't want my daughter to see me not eat," she said. "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."

If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, get help. Contact the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) at 1-800-931-2237 or go to NationalEatingDisorders.org.