Christina Applegate has opened up about how she came to terms with having a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I miss my exquisite breasts sometimes,” she told More magazine, making reference to a line about her breasts in the comedy Anchorman, in which she starred with Will Farrell.
Christina, who discovered she had breast cancer in 2008, explained how she reacted to the news.
“I was just shaking and then also, immediately, I had to go into ‘take-care-of-business-mode’,” she said.
The 40-year-old credits her family, friends and a spiritual advisor for helping her through the “total emotional collapse” that later followed.
The actress, whose mother is also a breast cancer survivor, says she had no time to grieve the loss of her breasts at the time, after news of her life-saving operation was leaked to the press.
“The good thing is that we got the information out, but talking about the facts of the disease [to others], I didn’t have to see what was going on with me,” she said.
“I think when [the attention] slowed down, it all came crashing down.”
Thankfully, Christina’s cancer was found early due to a doctor-ordered MRI and she has made a full recovery following her surgery.
Now a first-time mum to one-year-old Sadie Grace, Christina says she has overhauled her lifestyle and switched to a more healthy diet.
