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Christina Applegate shared she experienced sexual abuse at age 5 by her babysitter, and how it has impacted her in adulthood.
By Sasha Wayman Feb 25, 2026 4:52 PM | Updated 1 hour ago
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Content warning: This story discusses sexual and physical abuse.
Christina Applegate is sharing a painful part of her past.
The Bad Moms star candidly opens up about overcoming the most difficult moments of her childhood in her forthcoming memoir You With the Sad Eyes, including being molested by a babysitter when she was 5.
“I knew every part of it was wrong,” Christina told People in an interview published Feb. 25. “I felt sick and scared and sad. I never fully felt comfortable being touched, and that’s true still.”
“I’ve never felt comfortable with it my whole life, really,” she added, “and all because of that girl forcing me to do something I barely understood but that I knew was shameful.”
In her memoir, releasing March 3, Christina also details her mom’s struggle with heroin addiction, as well as the physical abuse Christina endured form one of her mom’s boyfriends, affected her as a child.
“I think I had kind of the worst situation from 3 to 7,” she shared. “But there was stuff like that going on in all our homes. Single moms, men coming in and out, drugs.”
For the Married…with Children actress—who shares 15-year-old daughter Sadie with husband Martyn LeNoble—it was important to chronicle her experience as “a little girl with sad eyes who ended up becoming Christina Applegate,” she explained. “And she still has those sad eyes. But she’s a stronger, different, resilient human being."
And putting pen to paper has helped Christina process some of her emotional scars.
Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Netflix
"To be honest, it's actually opened up so many wounds, and it's okay because I'm a strong girl, I'm going to get through it," she said. "But it wasn't like get to the other end and be like, 'Ah, now it's out.' It was the stuff that I'd never talked about. The stuff that was behind closed doors and that no one but the closest people in my life have ever known happened."
But that’s not to say sharing her story with the world will be easy. Still, the multiple sclerosis advocate hopes that her being candid can help others.
“Because a lot of it is so heavy, I had someone say to me, ‘Are you doing this because you’re being a victim?’” the Emmy winner explained. “I’m like, ‘No, I’m empowering other people out there.’ At least I hope to.”
She added, “I hope that some girl or boy or anyone who’s gone through being molested or beaten or anything I’ve gone through can go, ‘Oh my God, okay. I’m going to be okay.’”
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