Christina Applegate reveals death in her family that has brought her to 'tears' as she continues MS battle
Christina Applegate has suffered a family loss.
The Married... With Children actress - who has been battling the crippling disease MS - revealed on Tuesday that her father Robert 'Bobby' Applegate has died at the age of 82.
The 53-year-old Anchorman movie star broke down in tears when she shared the heartbreaking news on her podcast this week.
Applegate was talking to fellow MS sufferer Jamie-Lynn Sigler of Sopranos fame on their podcast MeSsy.
She told guest JoAnna Garcia Swisher that she was crying because her father passed away about a week before they were recording their podcast session.
Christina added that this was the first time she had shed tears over the passing of her dad because she had held it in.
The star with her dad when she was a young girl in the 1970s
'We knew he was going to die. Is that an excuse for not feeling?' she asked.
'Because you kind of know that someone's going to go, and you've said your goodbyes,' added the longtime actress.
Swisher then said she was very sad when one of her parents died adding it left her in an unusual state.
Applegate noticed the first signs of MS after 'falling' on her series Dead To Me.
The actress was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021, but she has recalled filming the pilot episode of the drama - which aired from 2019 to 2022 - which included a scene where her character Jen Harding was running across a field.
During an episode of her own 'MeSsy' podcast with Sigler, she told Dead To Me director Liz Feldman: 'I remember falling that day. Hi, first sign of MS! So, not to bring everybody down, but there I was.'
Liz recalled: 'I remember you losing your balance when we were shooting the pilot a couple of times. It was very hard to figure it out because, you know, I remember one time, it was really late at night.
'We'd been shooting probably 14 or 15 hours … It seemed completely reasonable that anybody would be collapsing.'
Christina confirmed: 'It was MS.'
Christina added that this was the first time she had shed tears over the passing of her dad because she had held it in
She revealed her diagnosis with the autoimmune disease - which affects the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system) - in 2021.
That was before the show finished.
The star previously admitted that filming the final season helped her deal with the news.
Christina told Kelly Clarkson in December 2022: 'The beauty of Dead to Me is that it gave me almost this weird platform of dealing with it.
'I didn't have to be on all the time and I didn't have to make all the jokes and I could fall apart in a scene,' the actress added.
'And it was, like, me. It was my soul actually falling apart, unfortunately, in front of the world, but it was cathartic in a beautiful way.'
She and fellow MS patient Sigler launched their MeSsy podcast, to talk about their lives with the illness.
Christina said: 'Just some thoughts. When we hold in feelings of despair we give those feelings incredible power.
'Why Jamie and I have our podcast is to air those feelings.
'Raw, honest and triggering. And by just sharing we free ourselves. Never feel alone. There is always an ear somewhere. Love you.'
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The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
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She suggested some were still in a 'precarious' position despite securing new long-term Scottish Government funding earlier this year. Read more: In an exclusive interview with The Herald, Ms Anderson suggested that Edinburgh's proposed new visitor levy - which will be introduced just before next year's summer festivals - was a 'huge opportunity' to help event organisers move from 'survival mode to thriving". Ms Anderson is the third director of the organisation Festivals Edinburgh, which was launched in 2007 to help secure the capital's status as the world's leading 'festival city". Lori Anderson is the director of Festivals Edinburgh. (Image: Colin Mearns) Ms Anderson works with 11 of the city's annual festivals, including the Edinburgh International Festival, the Fringe, the Tattoo, Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations, and the city's celebrations of jazz, film, visual art, science, storytelling, children's entertainment and books. Ms Anderson revealed that the 'scale and ambition' of some festival programmes had already had to be reduced as a result of lower-than-hoped-for Scottish Government funding, particularly for this year's events. Lori Anderson is director of Festivals Edinburgh. (Image: Colin Mearns) She suggested that the new Scottish Government funding deals announced by its arts agency, Creative Scotland, in January had not reversed the impact of prolonged standstill funding, which dated back as far as the 2008 global financial crash. Ms Anderson said: 'Edinburgh's festivals are finally in a more stable position after been in crisis mode for a good few years now with significant budget cuts, the pandemic and negotiating Brexit. 'But most of the festivals did not get as much as they wanted for their multi-year funding programmes and the timing of the announcement was much later than expected, which is making 2025 a difficult year. A number of festivals have had to adjust their scale and ambition of their programmes. The Edinburgh International Book Festival relocated last year to a new home at the former Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Picture: Edinburgh International Book Festival 'Looking ahead to the future, they are really at a bit of a crossroads now. They have a bit of stability at the moment, but their funding is always precarious and always a challenge.' The Scottish Government committed an additional £40m for Creative Scotland's multi-year funding programme, however this is being rolled out over two years. The Edinburgh International Festival's annual funding has increased from £2.3m to £3.25m this year, with a further £1m increase to come in 2026-27. The book festival's annual funding will has gone up from £306,000 to £520,000 this year and will rise a further £160,000 next year, while the art festival's funding is going up from £100,000 to £130,000 then £170,000 over the same period. 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Ms Anderson said: 'The festivals are really entrepreneurial when it comes to looking at creative ways to raise income and being financially sustainable. 'The big challenge for them at the moment is around the cost of doing business in Edinburgh. 'It is an expensive place to live, work and visit and to put on a festival. In particular, there are very high accommodation costs at the moment. 'Visitors, performers and festivals that support the accommodation costs of their artists will have to pay the visitor levy when it comes in. 'But I think it's actually a really exciting opportunity. It's a huge moment for Edinburgh to think holistically and have significant investment across the whole city. It's a moment to be looking forward to and planning for. 'We would hope that, given the contribution that the festivals make to the city, some of the visitor levy income would come back to them, otherwise it would just be a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.' 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Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Daily Mail
Former CIA intelligence officer lifts lid on why the next 007 should still be played by a man
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But what if it's not a question of whether she's able to believably pull off the role but whether that's something viewers, especially women, actually want?' Broccoli didn't seem to think so. 'I'm not particularly interested in taking a male character and having a woman play it. I think women are far more interesting than that,' Broccoli told Variety in 2020. 'Perhaps she knew something the rest of us didn't - or something we just weren't ready to admit: Women don't want to be James Bond. Not because we're content as his sexy sidekick, but because we want our own spy,' Christina said. Rumors: Stars tipped to be the new Bond have included Aaron Taylor-Johnson (left) and Theo James (right) However, Christina went on: 'The success of shows like Netflix's Black Doves and Paramount's Lioness suggest a female-led spy thriller isn't just palatable for audiences - it's satisfying a hunger for something new: a unique spy character created specifically for a woman. 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The Guardian
5 days ago
- The Guardian
Emmy award-winning actor Valerie Mahaffey dies aged 71
Valerie Mahaffey, the Emmy-award winning actor known for her roles on Northern Exposure, Desperate Housewives and Young Sheldon, died on Friday. She was 71. Her husband, actor Joseph Kell, said in a statement to Variety: 'I have lost the love of my life, and America has lost one of its most endearing actresses. She will be missed.' Kell said she died on 30 May in Los Angeles after a battle with cancer. Mahaffey had a career which spanned nearly 50 years and was known for playing eccentric characters, including the one for which she won a supporting actress Emmy in 1992: as hypochondriac Eve living in the fictional Alaska town featured in Northern Exposure, which aired from 1990 to 1995. Mahaffey most recently received an Independent Spirit award nomination for her role as the optimistic Madame Reynard in Azazel Jacobs' 2020 dark comedy French Exit. Michelle Pfeiffer, who played opposite Mahaffey in French Exit, posted on social media: 'One of our brightest stars was stolen from us yesterday. Such a remarkable talent and human.' She co-starred in Big Sky, David E Kelley's ensemble detective drama series which aired on ABC from 2020 to 2021. She also portrayed the grandiose Lorna Harding in the first two seasons of Dead to Me, the Netflix comedy starring Christina Applegate. Mahaffey was born in Indonesia on 16 June 1953 and was raised there until she was 11 before graduating from high school in Texas and going on to study at the University of Texas. She began her acting career on the stage in New York City, appearing in six Broadway six plays including Dracula opposite Raul Julia and Play Memory directed by Harold Prince. She also played Ashley Bennett on the soap opera The Doctors, for which she earned a Daytime Emmy nomination. She collected two Obie awards for her theater work in Top Girls and in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads. Mahaffey's versatility kept her constantly in demand for guest roles and she amassed dozens of series credits including Seinfeld, Wings, ER, Glee, Grey's Anatomy and The Mindy Project. She played the manipulative Alma Hodge, ex-wife of Kyle MacLachlan's Orson Hodge, on Desperate Housewives from 2006 to 2007 and recurred as the teacher Victoria MacElroy on Young Sheldon from 2017 to 2020. Survivors include her husband and daughter, Alice. Rob Morrow, Mahaffey's Northern Exposure co-star, posted on social media that Mahaffey 'was a breath of fresh air, joy and laughs' as Eve on the series. 'We all adored her,' he said.
