Christina Applegate has remained in the spotlight since her years as a teen star. Now a mother who faces many of the same struggles as any woman, Christina recently opened up to
Wonderwall for an interview.
On the latest milestone with her daughter, Sadie: “If tantrums are a milestone, then yes, we are knee-deep in that
right now. It’s the way of the world! We had our first throw-myself-on-the-floor-in-
the-middle-of-a-clothing-store episode the other day, where everyone was staring. That was a first! Other than that, she’s pretty fan-effing-tastic, and I’m really lucky. I’m the luckiest mom in the world.”
If her daughter decides to pursue a career in Hollywood: “She has to be 18 — that’s the rule. But if she wants to be an actress, she will be required to study acting. She’s not allowed to think that just because she’s cute and adorable she can do it. She needs to go to a great acting class and study all the aspects of the art. She needs to be in plays at school. If she wants to do this, I want her to feel that she has a handle on this craft and that she knows that she can always rely on her talent — and nothing else. So when she’s 18, she can go off and try it. But she also has to have a college education.”
Biggest regret about her teen star days: “I would have liked to have had more schooling. I do educate myself now as an adult when there are things that I’m interested in. But I’ll always regret leaving school in the 11th grade and getting my GED.”
The struggle to stay healthy as a mother: “It’s funny because I’m actually 15 pounds over what I was when I got pregnant, so I’m always like, ‘Oh boy, I’ve got some work to do here!’ But basically, I get up in the morning, I get my kid breakfast, we hang out, I drive her to school, I rush back and I do an hour and a half of working out, I rush back and get her, and then I rush back home and we have dinner together. That’s my day, and working out is a big part of it. But trying to eat healthy is hard when you have a toddler. I make her food so healthy, but it’s not free from calories because she’s a tiny little person and she needs them … because she actually has a really fast metabolism and we want to make sure that she’s healthy and has energy. So her food isn’t normally what I would eat. That balance is difficult, but we get it done!”
How she celebrated her one-year anniversary with husband Martyn LeNoble in February: “Sadie, Martyn and I stayed in our pajamas all day and had a snuggle day and played indoor cards and games. That was really it: The three of us just hung out together. We’ve been together for six years and we’ve known each other for a bajillion, so … it doesn’t really make much of a huge difference.”
No. 1 beauty tip: “Be happy – and sleep! It’s something I don’t get, but I think I would look a lot better if I got some.”
Pop culture obsessions: “We’re a ‘Downton Abbey’ family. And I love ‘Dance Moms’ — it’s the only show that I have to watch by myself. My husband will not be in the same room with me while I’m watching it, and my daughter’s obviously not allowed to watch it. I don’t like all the screaming and the yelling. I just love watching the little kids dance. So I usually fast forward through the screaming and yelling.”
Diet splurges: “I’m crazy about green drinks in the morning, and I try to eat really, really well. But I do splurge with pizza. I love pizza and Poquito Mas burritos. I have to stay very far away from them because I miss them when they’re gone.”
How she started working with FabKids: “It’s a membership program that’s easy for moms. It’s one click and you don’t have to think about it anymore. The clothes come every month. Toddlers’ clothes get destroyed, so it’s nice to have replacement items that you know are coming every month. … It’s really funny because I have bought my daughter clothes from different boutiques here in L.A. and whatever, and she gets her FabKids box and she only wears those clothes. That’s what she picks when she goes into her closet every day. I’m like, ‘What about the $100 dress?’ Of course I’m the idiot who spent $100 on a dress when you could spend $29.95 a month!”
How she and her daughter influenced the style of the FabKids collection: “I wanted to do a punk rocker girl [aesthetic], and they ended up doing London Calling. Sadie is very bohemian and kind of edgy, so they tried to incorporate a little bit of that. They would see her and be inspired by what she was doing, which was really great. … I would like to design more if they ever asked me to have more of a say in the design aspects of it.”
On the “No Kids” policy regarding paparazzi pictures: “You’re not allowed to point a camera at my daughter. You have to get permission to shoot other kids’ pictures. Anyone with any decency would walk up to someone and say, ‘Wow, your kid is so cute. May I take a picture?’ But for some reason, we’re excluded from that. They have frightened my child. I almost dropped my kid at LAX because I was blinded by lights. They put me in danger. They put her in danger. First and foremost, they frighten her. They don’t allow kids to have normal lives. And it’s also very dangerous for their identities to be out.”
On Kristen Bell: “It’s incredible what she did in one week shutting [the paparazzi] down like that — unbelievable. I’m so grateful to her. I really am. But that’s only one step. We have so much further to go to cut off the source, and we must cut off the source. But at some point, it has to be absolutely illegal to be anywhere near a child taking their picture.”
