Ethermac Exchange-Christina Applegate Details the "Only Plastic Surgery" She Had Done After Facing Criticism

Christina Applegate is getting candid about her past cosmetic procedures.

The Married…With Children alum has been very open about her physical journey since sharing her multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2021,Ethermac Exchange and most recently discussed an operation she had done at a young age.

"At 27 years old, I was on a show," she recalled to cohost Jamie-Lynn Sigler on the July 30 of their podcast MeSsy, "and the one of the producers—very famous people who did a very famous show as well—said, 'Hey, we're having trouble lighting under your eyes. Your bags under your eyes are so big.'"

Christina explained that the undereye bags were a "hereditary thing," even joking that her father has "got like Louis Vuitton luggage under his eyes."

Still, after the producer suggested that she get the undereye bags removed, Christina obliged, admitting it was against her judgement at the time.

"At 27 years old," she said, "I had the only plastic surgery I've ever had was to remove the bags under my eyes."

She continued, "The things people just plant, these seeds they plant into your head."

The Anchorman star has long been candid about her health and even called out critics who suggested she'd gotten plastic surgery as her face has changed amid her MS journey.

"Sooooo I made the unfortunate decision to look at some comments on an article from People mag about me and my kids at the CCA," Christina posted on X, formerly Twitter, in January, alongside a screenshot from a nasty comment sent her way. "Of course I told her that it wasn't nice. This was her reply. What is wrong with people. By the way, I laughed." 

The 52-year-old has also talked about how her diagnosis has affected her mental health, recently saying that she's struggling with depression due to the physical effects of the disease.

"I am in a depression right now, which I don't think I've felt for years," she explained on the MeSsy podcast in June. "Like a real, f--k it all, like real depression where it's kind of scaring me too a little bit because it feels really fatalistic."

And Christina—who shares 13-year-old daughter Sadie Grace with husband Martyn LeNoble—shared that even she was feeling tired of her own negative feelings around her illness.

"I can't believe it's going to be three years since diagnosis in June," she admitted. "And I'm still sitting here like ‘Boohoo, woe is me.' I'm still mad about it."

To learn more about Christina's health journey, keep reading.

Christina Applegate shared she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021.

"Hi friends. A few months ago I was diagnosed with MS," she shared on her social media channels that August. "It's been a strange journey. But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition. It's been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going. Unless some a--hole blocks it."

"Oh, by the way, I have a disease," she joked during her November 2022 Hollywood Walk of Fame induction ceremony, her first public appearance since her MS diagnosis. "Did you not notice? I'm not even wearing shoes."

Christina believes her MS journey actually began "six or seven years" before her 2021 diagnosis.

"I noticed, especially the first season [of Dead to Me], we'd be shooting and my leg would buckle," Christina explained during a March 2024 interview on Good Morning America. "I really just put it off as being tired, or I'm dehydrated, or it's the weather. Then nothing would happen for months, and I didn't pay attention."

By the time she was shooting the Netflix series' third and final season, the actress said she was "being brought to set in a wheelchair."

"I couldn't move that far," she recalled, "so I had to tell everybody because I needed help."

The Dead to Me star captioned this photo of her cane collection amid her battle with MS: "Walking sticks are now part of my new normal."

Joined by her daughter Sadie Grace LeNoble, Christina had a simple message for multiple sclerosis while attending the 2023 SAG Awards: "F U MS."

After a receiving standing ovation at the 2023 Emmys, the Married...With Children alum quipped, "You're totally shaming me with disability by standing up."

"I make these jokes because if I don't, I'll suffocate," Christina shared on a March 2024 episode on Armchair Expert, explaining why she often pokes fun at her condition. "I'll be done."

"I have 30 lesions on my brain," she said on the same podcast. "My biggest one is behind my right eye, so my right eye hurts a lot."

Legions are caused by the immune system attacking the myelin sheath around nerves, according to the Multiple Sclerosis Trust.

Christina hasn’t held back when it comes to sharing her journey. 

"It sucks," the Anchorman actress told late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel of her daily struggles with MS. "I'm not going to lie. I think anyone who has MS isn't going to be like, 'This is the best thing that ever happened to me!'"

When talking about her day-to-day life with the disease, Christina told Good Morning America in March 2024, "I live kind of in hell."

"But I might get to a place where I function a little bit better," she added. "Right now, I'm isolating, and that's kind of how I'm dealing with it—by not going anywhere because I don't want to do it. It's hard." 

Christina credited her Sweetest Thing costar Selma Blair—who was diagnosed with MS in 2018—for urging her to get tested for the disease.

"She said, 'You need to get checked for MS,'" Christina recalled during her GMA interview. "If not for her, it could've been way worse."

Christina confirmed that Dead to Me will likely be her last onscreen credit, telling Vanity Fair in May 2023, "I can’t even imagine going to set right now."

"I’m probably not going to work on-camera again, but I'm so glad that I went out with someone who is by far the greatest actress I’ve ever worked with in my entire life," she said of costar Linda Cardellini, "if not the greatest human I’ve ever known.