Christina Applegate, 54, Talks to AARP About Her Struggles With MS and Writing Her Frank New Memoir

The actor says it’s terrifying, but feels necessary, to share her painful story in ‘You With the Sad Eyes’

Donna Freydkin,

AARP

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Published March 02, 2026

a side by side collage with a photo of christina applegate and a photo of the cover of her memoir

(From left) Christina Applegate’s new memoir; Applegate at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in January 2020.

AARP (Getty Images)

Christina Applegate, 54, is refreshingly frank off-screen. In a recent interview with AARP, she was self-deprecating, almost painfully honest and acerbically funny, joking that her cat allergies made her sound like she has a drug problem (she does not) and about the daily negotiations that come with mothering a teenager. (She and her husband, musician Martyn LeNoble, have a daughter, Sadie, 15.)

That appealing frankness comes through in her new memoir, You With the Sad Eyes (March 3), which details Applegate’s rise to fame and career highs and lows. Highs include her role as the wisecracking Kelly Bundy on the iconic Fox sitcom Married… With Children, which aired for 11 seasons, and later roles that showcased her sharp comic timing (the 2016 film Bad Moms and the Netflix series Dead to Me, for example).

But at its heart, Applegate’s book is the relatable story of a mother, friend and survivor. Referring to journals she kept for decades, she reflects on childhood experiences of sexual abuse at age 5 and growing up in a violent, unstable home environment that shaped her sense of safety and self-worth. Years later, at 36, Applegate faced breast cancer, enduring treatment and its emotional toll while continuing to work and care for her family. Then came another life-altering challenge: a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, the progressive neurological disease she revealed publicly in 2021 after symptoms began reshaping how she moved through the world. Applegate has also spoken openly about preventive surgeries, including the removal of her ovaries and fallopian tubes after she tested positive for a BRCA1 gene mutation.

christina applegate sitting behind her star on the hollywood walk of fame

The actor poses with her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in November 2022.

Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Netflix

Here’s more from our interview with the actor.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You’ve been so candid throughout your career, but this book feels like a new level of openness. What drove you to write it?

I’ve been wanting to put these things down for my whole life, especially the things that are pretty hard to read. Too many people go through these things and feel alone.

What was the most challenging part of the process?

The hardest part was, honestly, doing the audiobook — sitting down and reading it out loud. Because there it is. I’ve told these stories so many times to friends over 40 years. But once I sat down to record it out loud, I found myself crying and getting really emotional. That was hard.

And what’s been the most healing?

I don’t know yet. Maybe a year from now I’ll know. Right now, the anticipation and fear of sharing all of this is weighing on me quite a bit. I feel like once people actually receive it — if even one person who has been through abuse reads this and goes, “Thank you” — that’s going to be the healing part. Right now, I’m in complete and utter anxiety about it. People are going to be judging my life. It’s very scary.

Who do you hope reads your book?

Kids who came from abuse — who watched a parent be abused, or who experienced it themselves — and are trying to navigate life afterward. This isn’t a self-help book. It’s not even inspirational, really. It’s literally just my thoughts, pulled from journals I’ve kept my whole life, stored in a fire-retardant box. I used to tell my assistant, who is also Sadie’s godmother and lives here, “When I [die], burn all of these. Don’t show anyone my journals.” And for me to open those up and build a book around them, it’s humbling and terrifying.

You dedicated the book to your daughter, Sadie. Has she read it?

She’s not too young, but she hates reading. She’s 15. I don’t know if she’s ever going to read it — I can’t even get her to read her stuff for school. But maybe she’ll listen to the audiobook.

christina applegate posing on the red carpet with her daughter sadie

Applegate is joined by her daughter, Sadie, at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2023.

Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images

What’s your relationship with Sadie like?

I know people say you’re not supposed to be best friends with your kid, but I think you can be both a parent and a best friend. She comes in at the end of the day, shuts the door, and says, “It’s Mama and Sadie time.” My 15-year-old still wants to hang out with me. Whether it’s serious stuff or just laughing or doing improv, she always says, “Alright everyone, bye. I just want to be with my mom.” That is the best thing in the world to me.

When do you feel most yourself?

Driving Sadie to school. That’s the only time they talk to you, right? We blast music and laugh, and she reaches over sometimes and holds my hand. That’s when I feel good. The rest of the day, I’m pretty much in bed watching TV.

You’ve been open about your health challenges. Can you share what day-to-day life looks like right now?

This morning, really early, Sadie wanted me to make my very famous fluffy scrambled eggs. I had literally just opened my eyes — and nothing was working yet — but the kid wanted her eggs. I couldn’t get down the stairs the usual way, so I scooched down them. Once I was down, I stood up and made her beautiful, fluffy eggs.

Have you learned to ask for help when you need it?

Yes, but most of the time I want to do it myself. When I realize I can’t, I ask, and I’m OK with that. I always try first.

What does your caregiving circle look like?

I have people here all the time: my assistant, my best friend, who comes on weekends. I’m never truly alone except for maybe a couple of hours a day. I’m taken care of. I’m good.

What has surprised you most about getting older?

the cover of the book you with the sad eyes

In “You With the Sad Eyes,” Applegate opens up about trauma from her past and coping with MS.

Courtesy Hachette Book Group

I’m not really doing it anymore — I’m not in the public eye in the same way — so I can just be whatever I want. I’m still good at what I do. Who gives a f--- what I look like? I’m not going to pull my face up, I’m not going to do all that, and I never have. As long as you can still tell a story, who cares? I mean, I was Kelly Bundy. People expect me to look like that forever. I’m 54 years old. This is what it is.

But then I’ll see a commercial I did and think, “Who is that person?” So it’s bizarre. I still get insecure, obviously. I’m not going to say I’m in full acceptance of my jowls — I don’t love them — but they’re there. It’s a life lived.

How do you define “a good life” now?

That’s really hard to answer. Honestly? I don’t know if I have a good life. My job right now is just to make sure that [Sadie] does.

The book’s cover photo is striking: a younger you with expressive eyes. What does that image mean to you?

[The publisher] actually picked it. But I agreed, because it’s someone who still had hope. I was 30 years old in that picture.

Did some people want a different kind of book from you?

You don’t understand how many arguments I got into with people about that. They kept saying, “Christina, it’s a little depressing.” And I said, “Well, that was my life.” I can add funny things — and there are funny things, there are great times — but the point of writing this was never to tell my Hollywood story. It was to tell the story of a little girl with sad eyes.

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Donna Freydkin has spent 10-plus years interviewing celebrities for major publications, and has written for a variety of outlets such as USA Today, Allure, Yahoo! and CNN covering topics such as films, family and favorite meals.