Christina Applegate says she was anorexic and got down to a size ZERO to wear bikinis on Married With Children
Christina Applegate barely ate during the hit 1980s TV show Married With Children, she shares in her new tell-all book.
The 54-year-old star, who played Kelly Bundy in all 11 seasons of the classic sitcom, opened up about her struggle with body dysmorphia and anorexia.
The TV star said his problems were made worse when he played the promiscuous and rebellious teenager.
An excerpt from his memoir, You with Sad Eyes, shared by: Vultureshe wrote: ‘I dug myself into a hole with this character because I was supposed to be weak.
‘I had a vision of certain clothes I wanted her to wear, and in order to wear those clothes – clothes that would show off when you ate something as small as a single grape – I had to dig deeper into my eating disorder.’
Christina Applegate was barely eating when she shared on the hit 1980s TV show Married With Children; seen in the 1980s
He married Married with Children actors Applegate, David Faustino, Ed O’Nell and Katy Saga in 1988
The show ran from 1987 to 1997, when Applegate was in her teens and early twenties.
Applegate took drastic measures to control her weight, resulting in little more than “bone, bone, bone,” she said.
The blonde beauty added: ‘If I were to eat something as horrifyingly large as a bagel, I’d scoop it out and maybe eat half or half of it. This was the amount of food I consumed throughout the day.
‘Sometimes I would punish myself and not eat at all. I was a size 0 and the cosplayers at Married …With Children often had to take my clothes away. “I was bone, bone, bone,” the artist added.
Applegate admitted she was ‘never satisfied’ as she began wearing ‘tighter’ and ‘shorter’ outfits as the show went on. She often wore bikinis for the series.
And sometimes he cringed when the audience’s cat called him.
He recalled: ‘By season five, God: I could walk into the living room wearing a leather fringed jacket over a short red shirt, as I did in episode 13 of The Godfather, and there would be a five-second break onstage while the crowd shouted fervently at me.
‘I look at all this now and feel ashamed. The show was truly expansive and obscene and would have no chance of being made these days.
She frequently modeled bikinis in the program. The 54-year-old star, who played Kelly Bundy in all 11 seasons of the classic comedy series, opened up about her struggle with body dysmorphia and anorexia in her new book.
Here she is seen wearing a purple-and-white bikini top and matching sarong for a party scene.
The TV star said his problems got worse while playing a promiscuous and rebellious teenager. In an excerpt from her memoir, You With Sad Eyes, shared by Vulture, she wrote: ‘I dug myself into a hole with this character because I was supposed to be thin.’
She added: ‘I had a vision of certain clothes that I wanted her to wear, and wearing those clothes – clothes that would show off even if you ate something as small as a single grape – forced me to delve even deeper into my eating disorder.’
‘That’s a good thing: It’s hard enough for young women to succeed in the world of appearances.’
The star emphasized that she does not blame the cast or crew for what happened, nor does she blame anyone for the role affecting her mental health issues.
She said: ‘Of course, it was always part of the show that I was an object of men’s scorn, but I wanted to wear those Kelly Bundy dresses.
‘And as hard as it is to believe, I was truly innocent about the impact I had on people. I was just a kid. I knew that my self-denial of food and my overall damaging relationship with it was entirely trauma-based.’
