Christina Applegate became cancer-free after undergoing a double mastectomy in 2008, and on a new episode of Armchair Expert, she spoke candidly about her cancer journey.
In the March 25 episode, Christina tells Armchair hosts Dax Shepard and Monica Padman that she regretted not being more honest about how she was feeling following her breast cancer diagnosis.
“I learned that lesson the hard way because in 2008, when I had breast cancer at 36 years old, I went out, and I was the good girl talking about ‘Oh, I love my new boobs’ that are all scarred and fucked up. What was I thinking?” she said.
“My first interview was with Robin Roberts when I had cancer, and I’m sitting there lying my ass off about how I felt,” she added.
“Everything I was saying was a freaking lie. It was me trying to convince myself of something, and I think that did no service to anyone,” she said. “Yes, I started a foundation right away. Yes, I did all the things that I had to do, and we raised millions of dollars for women to get MRIs who were at high risk. Yes, we did a good thing, but at the back of it, I was taking off my bra and crying every night. And I wish that I had said that.”
Christina said that she even used her experience to encourage “a friend who is in the public eye” to be more open about their cancer journey. When that friend made a post saying, “If there’s anyone that can beat it, it’s going to be me,” Christina told them to take it down.
“I said, ‘Take it down,'” Christina recalled. “I said, ‘Take it down right now because someone’s mom just died, and she was pretty strong. Someone’s daughter just died, someone’s sister just died, someone’s dad just died from this. Take it down.’ I said, ‘What you’re gonna do is you’re going to be honest every step of the way through your chemo, your radiation, all the stuff.'”
“It ended up that people really were helped by what she did,” she finished.
Since then, Christina has made it a point to be extremely open about her health. In 2021, she announced she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and she’s been vocal about the struggles she faces as a result of the condition, saying of her diagnosis, “[it was] very scary for me because this body that I had known was no longer mine.”
Listen to Christina’s full episode of Armchair Expert here.