Christina Applegate has detailed the “dangerous” and “horrifying” weight loss she underwent during her battle with multiple sclerosis (MS) in her new memoir.
“Sometimes I was more worried about my weight than my illness,” she writes in “You Have Sad Eyes,” according to an excerpt published in Sunday’s Guardian newspaper. “I didn’t look in the mirror for a year.
“Then I ended up on a clear liquid diet due to stomach issues, and suddenly everything just fell off me,” continues the “Married… With Children” alum, 54. “Within seven months, it was all gone and I lost over 50 pounds. Recently, my legs were thinner than ever.”
Applegate, who was diagnosed with the debilitating autoimmune disease in 2021, went on to explain that her battle with MS caused her to suffer from stomach issues, resulting in her dramatic weight loss.
“I have serious stomach problems because of my illness,” she says in her memoir, scheduled to be published on Tuesday. “As I write this, I have the best tamales I’ve ever had downstairs. I’m hungry and want to eat five right now. But if I did, I’d probably end up in the ER again, as I have so many times recently.”
Although the “Anchorman” star has “successfully created a healthier place” when it comes to her “relationship with food,” the effects of her MS are particularly visible in her legs, which she describes as “scary to look at.”
“I have no muscles, just a stick,” Applegate wrote. “It’s dangerous to walk around with zero muscle in your body. It means your bones aren’t protected if you fall, which is very scary.”
“But there’s still that little voice in my head that says, ‘You’re so skinny. You’ve got the legs you’ve always wanted. Good for you,'” she added. “This is sick. But she’s not going to win.”
Applegate revealed in August 2021 that she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
She later opened up about when she found out she was battling MS during an appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” in December 2022.
“I didn’t know what was happening to me,” she explained, who was filming the final season of her Netflix show Dead to Me at the time of her diagnosis.
“I couldn’t even walk,” she continued. “They had to use a wheelchair to get me on set. I freaked out. Someone said, ‘You need an MRI.'”
Applegate also admitted in an interview with The New York Times a month before her appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” that she gained 40 pounds during her early battle with MS and had to start walking with a cane.
“This is the first time someone sees me as I am,” she told the magazine. “This is absolutely unacceptable. It makes me angry.”
The Bad Moms star recently revealed that she is confined to bed due to ongoing pain as a symptom of her multiple sclerosis.
But Applegate also revealed that she is still trying to take her 15-year-old daughter, Sadie, to school despite the unimaginable pain. Applegate shares Sadie with her husband of 13 years, Martin Lenoble.
“I want to take her with me. That’s my favorite thing to do,” she told People magazine last month. “It’s the only time we have together. I say to myself, ‘Get her safely home so I can go back to bed.’ And that’s what I’m doing.”
“My life did not end with a bow,” added the actress, who has been hospitalized more than 30 times since her diagnosis in 2021. “People’s lives, for lack of a better word, can suck sometimes. So I try to be as honest and raw as possible.”
Before being diagnosed with MS five years ago, Applegate survived breast cancer. She also had a double mastectomy in 2008 and had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed in 2017 to avoid ovarian cancer.
The “Samantha Who?” alum made a rare public appearance at the 2024 Emmy Awards amid her battle with MS and received a standing ovation.
“Thank you so much. Oh my god,” she said through tears during the ceremony. “Standing up is completely humiliating my disability. My body is not Ozempipic’s fault.”
