Christina Applegate is preparing to release her memoir, “You With the Sad Eyes,” and she has been upfront that it is “not an inspirational book.” While speaking in an interview, she talked plainly about living with multiple sclerosis and how much it has changed her daily routine.
She said most days are spent inside her bedroom, usually either lying in bed or resting on top of it. It is not about sleeping through the day, she explained, it is about managing pain and trying to stay as comfortable as she can.
There is one part of her day that pulls her out of the house, and that is taking her 15-year-old daughter, Sadie to school. She said, “I want to take her; it’s my favorite thing to do. It’s the only time we have together by ourselves.”
She also shared the quiet promise she makes to herself each morning, saying, “I tell myself, ‘Just get her there safely and get home so you can get back into bed.’ And that’s what I do.” After that short drive, she returns home and goes back to resting.
Even though MS has largely kept her close to home, she said it has also opened something up in her. Through her memoir and her podcast MeSsy, which she co hosts with Jamie Lynn Sigler who also has MS, she has chosen to speak more openly about what her life really looks like.
She does not pretend things are neatly resolved. “My life isn’t wrapped up with a bow,” she said, and added, “People’s lives, sorry for lack of a better term, f***ing suck sometimes. So I’m being as honest and raw as I possibly can.”
In the book, she revisits her early years growing up with a single mother in Laurel Canyon, her rise to fame as a teenager, and her health battles with breast cancer and multiple sclerosis. The memoir traces those chapters without trying to smooth them over.
