Christina Applegate Opens Up About Her Past Struggles With Anorexia: I ‘Would Eat 5 Almonds in a Day’

After “never” discussing her struggles with anorexia before, Christina Applegate got very candid about the “f--king torture” she endured while dealing with the eating disorder as a teenager starring on Married … With Children.

The actress, 52, opened up about her experience on the Tuesday, May 14, episode of her “MeSsy” podcast with Jamie-Lynn Sigler. “I just deprived myself of food for years and years and years,” she said.

Christina explained that her mother enrolled her in the Weight Watchers program when she was 15 years old, but she had already been struggling with her body image for years after a boy in her neighborhood called her “fat.”

“She was always competitive,” Christina said of her mom. “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.”

The Dead to Me star’s anorexia was so bad that she “would eat five almonds in a day,” she said. “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.”

Christina, who played Kelly on Married … With Children, said that the costume department had to take in her clothing beyond size 0 so that it would fit properly.

“I wanted my bones to be sticking out, so I didn’t eat,” she said. However, people on set began to notice and became concerned. She explained that her small size was “very scary to everyone.”

“They were like, ‘Christina never eats.’ They talked to me about it,” she continued. “But to me, I was enormous.”

The Vacation star admitted that she never “discussed” her eating disorder, which lasted until her 30s, in “public,” but she wanted to break her silence because she felt like “that demon in my head, it’s coming back really loud and it’s scaring me.”

Christina said she has gained 45 pounds since she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021 and has covered all of the mirrors in her house to avoid looking at herself.

“I don’t look in mirrors,” she continued. “It’s obviously something that people don’t know. I have writing all over my mirrors in my bathroom so that I don’t look in them because I will, like, fall on the ground and cry.”

Christina concluded, “The demon is saying these things to me, and it’s scaring me because I don’t want my daughter to see me not eat, and I don’t want her to see me talk about these things. I’ve been really clear about never talking about this stuff with her and trying not to put myself down.”

Christina shares daughter Sadie Grace, 12, with husband Martyn LeNoble.

If you or someone you know struggles with an eating disorder, visit the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa & Associated Disorders (ANAD) website or call their hotline at (888)-375-7767 to get help.