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barely ate while on her hit 1980s TV show Married With Children, she has shared in her new tell-all book.
The 54-year-old star, who played Kelly Bundy in all 11 seasons of the classic sitcom, has opened up about her struggle with body dysmorphia and anorexia.
The TV star said her problems worsened by the time she played the promiscuous and rebellious teen.
In an extract from her memoir You With The Sad Eyes shared by Vulture, she wrote: 'I dug myself into a hole with that character, though, because I had to be skinny.
'I had a vision of the specific clothes I wanted her to wear, and to wear those clothes — clothes that would show if you ate something as tiny as a single grape — I had to lean even deeper into my eating disorder.'
Christina Applegate barely ate while on her hit 1980s TV show Married With Children she has shared; seen in the 1980s
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Married With Children actors Applegate, David Faustino, Ed O'Nell and Katy Saga in 1988
The show aired from 1987 until 1997 when Applegate was in her teens and early twenties.
Applegate took drastic measures to control her weight, and ended up as little more than 'bone, bone, bone,' she said.
The blonde beauty added: 'If I was going to eat something as horrendously huge as a bagel, say, I would scoop it out and maybe have half of it, or half of a half. That would be my food intake for an entire day.
'Sometimes I'd punish myself and wouldn't eat at all. I was a size 0, and the costume people on Married …With Children would often have to take my clothes in. I was bone, bone, bone,' added the artist.
Applegate admitted she was 'never satisfied' while she started to wear 'tighter' and 'shorter' clothes as the show continued. Often, she wore bikinis for the series.
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And sometimes she would cringe when the audience cat called her.
She recalled: 'By season five, my God: I could walk into the living room, as I did in episode 13, The Godfather, in a leather fringed jacket over a short red shirt and there would be a five-second break in the scene while the crowd hollered lustily at me.
'I look at all this now and cringe. The show was indeed broad, and lewd, and it wouldn't have a shot in hell of being made these days.
She often modeled bikinis on the show. The 54-year-old star, who played Kelly Bundy in all 11 seasons of the classic sitcom, has opened up about her struggle with body dysmorphia and anorexia in her new book
The TV star said her problems worsened by her time playing the promiscuous and rebellious teen. In an extract from her memoir You With The Sad Eyes shared by Vulture, she wrote: 'I dug myself into a hole with that character, though, because I had to be skinny'
She added, 'I had a vision of the specific clothes I wanted her to wear, and to wear those clothes — clothes that would show if you ate something as tiny as a single grape — I had to lean even deeper into my eating disorder'
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'That's a good thing: It's hard enough for young women to thrive in a world of appearances.'
The star insisted she doesn't blame the cast or crew for what occurred, and she doesn't blame anyone for the ways the role impacted her mental health issues.
She said: 'Sure, it was always part of the show that I would be an object for men to leer at, but I wanted to wear those Kelly Bundy dresses.
'And as hard as it may be to believe, I was genuinely innocent of my effect on people. I was just a kid. I knew my self‑denial of food and my generally damaging relationship with it were all trauma‑based.'
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