Christina Applegate is speaking candidly about her early experience with an eating disorder for the first time.

On Mondays episode of her MeSsy podcast, Applegate recalls how her struggles with body image began in childhood while in conversation with fellow actor Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Her obsession with staying thin, she said, intensified after she landed the role of Kelly Bundy on the Fox sitcom Married... With Children , which premiered in 1987.

I wanted my bones to be sticking out, so I didnt eat, she explained. It was very scary to everyone on set because they were like: Christina never eats. And I didnt.

She went on to note: If I did eat something, Id punish myself. I was never bulimic or anything like that, I just deprived myself of food for years and years and years. It was torture.

Married... With Children wrapped in 1997 after 11 seasons. Applegate, however, continued to grapple with her eating disorder while working on her next major project, NBCs Jesse . During rehearsals for that series second and final season, which aired in 2000, the actor said some of her size zero costumes had to be taken in because shed become so thin.