Christina Applegate looks back on dark times in his personal life.
“My mother always said, ‘I’ve never met a scumbag I didn’t like.’ And that’s how I rolled,” Applegate, 54, said in an interview People published on Tuesday, February 24. “I never had a real job. I always had these broken birds that I wanted to fix. I always thought I could do it.”
He added, “And you know what? You can’t. It’s like, if I could be a lesson to anyone.”
Applegate was in a long-term, physically abusive relationship that began during her teenage years. The relationship came after Applegate had a tough upbringing in California’s Laurel Canyon.
“I think I was in a bad mood from 3 to 7, but there were things like that going on in all our homes,” he recalls. “Single mothers, men coming in and out, drugs. It’s always nice to see your mother crying on the floor while you’re not taken care of.”
Applegate has been open about her mother, Nancy Priddy, struggling with addiction.
“My mom, as beautiful as she is — and with love, Nancy Priddy, I love you so much, but your tools were off,” Applegate said during an April 2025 episode of her “MeSsy” podcast. But automatically, as parents, you will correct their mistakes before or take what they have.
Applegate noted during the same podcast that her upbringing influenced her experience as a mother. The actress shares a daughter Sadie (born in 2011) with her husband Martyn LeNoble.
I Married … With Children The star will explore how he has grown even more in his new history, You With Sad Eyeswill be released next month.
“We all come from somewhere, some places hurt more than others, and that’s what you do with it,” Applegate said. People on tuesday. “This is not an inspirational book, by any means. But it can be inspirational.”
Applegate discussed the book via Instagram in October 2025.
“Thank you all for sharing your love with me this past week as I share my life with you. My memory is about survival and all the things I’ve never told anyone: the good things, the bad things, the funny things, the sad things,” Applegate captioned an Instagram post at the time. “Things some of my best friends don’t know. You all mean everything to me. Thanks for reading. Peace and blessings.”
Applegate is also set to open up about her ongoing battle with multiple sclerosis in the book. (The actor announced in 2021 that he was diagnosed with MS.)
The book “is about a little girl with sad eyes who ends up being Christina Applegate,” he told Pthere. “And she still has those sad eyes. But she’s a strong, different, resilient person. And that’s really my story.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Applegate added: “My life is not wrapped up in a bow.
