Christina Applegate admits she lied about impact of mastectomy amid cancer diagnosis
Christina Applegate has opened up on some past comments that she made about her double mastectomy back in 2008.
The actress has been open about her health struggles over the years, including her life-altering Multiple Sclerosis (MS) diagnosis in 2021.
MS is an autoimmune condition that attacks the body's central nervous system, affecting the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves.
Since her diagnosis, Applegate says she's been left in 'unimaginable pain' as a result of her MS symptoms, and has been hospitalised '30 times'.
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In a piece for The Guardian, amidst the promotion of her new memoir, You With The Sad Eyes, she describes spending most of her days in agony, writing: "Most days, simply walking across the room feels like scaling a mountain."
But it isn't just MS that Applegate has had to deal with, as 18 years ago, she underwent a double mastectomy after an early-stage breast cancer diagnosis.
In 2008, a then-36-year-old Applegate tested positive for the genetic mutation BRCA1 (Breast Cancer gene 1) after having undergone early detection tests from the age of 30 due to her mother, Nancy Priddy, being diagnosed twice with the condition.
A month after her diagnosis, she told ABC News that she was '100 per cent' cancer-free.
Even though the cancerous lumps were only found in one breast, she made the decision to undergo the double mastectomy to reduce the chance of the cancer returning.
After her experience, she decided to raise awareness of early detection and founded the charitable organisation, Right Action for Women, which provided financial assistance for MRI screenings.
During an interview with Oprah Winfrey at the time, the Anchorman actress claimed that the situation was a 'blessing'; however, in her new memoir, she says she now regrets saying that.
"Frankly, I was disgusted by what came out of my mouth," she said in the book.
"It should have been a moment to share the truth. I thought I should tell everyone that it was a blessing," she continued.
It was further reported by the New York Post that she admitted that it was a 'way of coping' with the fact that she 'lost her breasts'.
“To this day, I feel emotionally and physically mangled by what I went through, but the organisation mitigates the terrible loss I felt and feel,” she said, adding that there are 'other ways' she had 'hurt instead of helped'.
She also recalled a conversation she had with singer-songwriter and breast cancer survivor Melissa Etheridge, who told her: "Christina, this is a blessing that’s happened to you in your life, right now, you get to start over, to change everything.”
“Here’s how I feel about that interview now, It was bulls**t,” the Dead to Me actress admitted. "I had lied, thinking I was being uplifting. I was acting like Little Ms. Warrior, but that's not how I really felt.
"There I was, talking about f***ing blessings when they were going through a living hell."
Writing further, the actress said that she was 'alone and sad' over the loss of something so intimate, as 'no amount of plastic surgery can ever make up for it.'
She didn't hide this aspect at the time, though, telling Winfrey: "When you look down, it's the first thing you see...So you're reminded constantly of this thing - this cancer thing that you had."
Applegate added in her memoir: “I’m not going to lie anymore. MS sucks. It’s not like you can get rid of the cancer, get breast reconstruction and move on, which was certainly how I described my journey to Oprah, Robin and others.”
Topics: Celebrity, Christina Applegate, Health, Cancer
Joshua Nair