Christina Applegate revealed the only cosmetic procedure she’s had done during Tuesday’s episode of her and Jamie-Lynn Sigler’s MeSsy podcast.
The 52-year-old Emmy winner, who got her big break as the teenage Kelly Bundy on the series Married…with Children, admitted to going under the knife at age 27.
‘I was on a show and one of the producers — [a] very famous [person] who did a very famous show as well — said, “Hey we’re having a lot of trouble lighting under your eyes. The bags under your eyes are so big,”‘ the Dead to Me star recalled.
She explained that the producer advised her to ‘get them removed.’
At the time, she was starring as the leading lady on NBC’s sitcom, Jesse, which ran for just two seasons between 1998 to 2000.
Christina Applegate revealed the one and only cosmetic procedure she’s had done during an Tuesday’s episode of her and Jamie-Lynn Sigler’s Messy podcast (seen in 2023)
Applegate explained to listeners that the dark circles beneath her eyes were ‘a hereditary thing’ and joked her father, Robert Applegate, ‘has got Louis Vuitton luggage under his eyes.’
Still, she said the producer’s remarks made her feel ‘shame’ and planted ‘seeds [of insecurity] into [her] head.’
‘You know what I did? At 27 years old, I had the only plastic surgery I’ve ever had to remove the bags under my eyes. … I went under,’ the performer stated.
Earlier this year, the mother-of-one previously opened up about the pressure of being in the spotlight at such an early age while on Married… With Children.
In May, she revealed that she battled anorexic while starring on the beloved sitcom at just 15.
Her mother Nancy Priddy – herself a television actress – enrolled Applegate in a Weight Watchers program the year she began her run on the show.
As she became a household name, Applegate became so obsessed with being thin that she ‘wanted my bones to be sticking out’ and at times subsisted on ‘five almonds in a day.’
As she looked back at the difficult period on her podcast, the star noted she had ‘never discussed’ her struggle with anorexia in public before.
The 52-year-old Emmy winner, who got her big break as the teenage Kelly Bundy on the series Married…with Children, admitted to going under the knife at age 27; pictured at age 27
In recent years, Applegate has battled a new series of health problems related to multiple sclerosis, which she was diagnosed with in 2021 after what she has described as ‘six or seven years’ of symptoms.
Her fixation on her weight began ‘when I was a little girl’ and a neighbor boy called her ‘fat’ after touching her thigh, Applegate revealed.
The issue was compounded by Nancy, who ‘was obsessed with her weight so she would always say things like: “You could stand to lose 5lbs.”‘
Nancy even became ‘competitive’ with Applegate about weight loss, to the point that ‘if I got down to 110, which, I mean, 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?”‘
Applegate said: ‘And the reason was I finally had an eating disorder. Like, that was the reason. I would eat five almonds in a day, and if I had six I would cry and I wouldn’t wanna leave the house, and that stuck with me for years and years and years.’
While she was playing Kelly Bundy on Married… With Children, Applegate wanted to dress like one of the ‘rock sluts’ who had formed a ‘hilarious’ 1980s subculture.
She explained that it was ‘my idea’ to wear revealing costumes as Kelly in order to pay tribute to the ‘rock culture’ she had observed.
While starring as the leading lady on NBC’s sitcom, Jesse, the Dead to Me star recalled a producer advising her to get the ‘bags under’ her eyes ‘removed’
In recent years, Christina has battled a new series of health problems related to multiple sclerosis, which she was diagnosed with in 2021 after what she has described as ‘six or seven years’ of symptoms; pictured last year
However, the clothes only amplified her complexes about her figure ‘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.’
Applegate, who is working on a memoir, recalled that ‘if I did eat something, I’d punish myself. I was never, you know, bulimic or anything like that. I just deprived myself of food for years and years and years. It was torture. It was f***ing torture.’
Once, when she was trying on a size-zero outfit at Fred Segal, she noticed ‘a little sliver of my skin was hanging over the side.’
‘Oh, God, no, I look too fat in these,’ Applegate complained to a gal pal, who took hold of her and admonished her: ‘Stop it! You sound insane.’
In May, she opened up about battling anorexic during her rise to fame following her casting on Married… With Children at just 15; pictured in October 1989 while season four was on the air
However Applegate regarded herself as ‘enormous’ and remained fanatically determined to be skinny – so much so that by season two of Married… With Children, even her size-zero costumes had to be taken in to fit her.
She received a wake-up call while sitting on the toilet, where she looked at herself and ‘saw only bones,’ which ‘scared the s*** out of me.’
Applegate attempted to turn her diet around, saying: ‘I tried so hard to bring in calories, but still, that part of me was like – I’d get a smoothie, but I could only eat a third of it, drink a third of it. Like I’d have to throw it out.’
She explained: ‘I’d have to put sugar on my salty food and salt on my sugary food. I would destroy my food so that I wouldn’t eat it. I would separate them into little bits. It was so methodical.’
The Friends guest star shared that she was in her 30s by the time she managed to get her preoccupation with her weight under control.
