Christina Applegate is mourning the loss of her father, Robert “Bobby” Applegate.
The 53-year-old actress revealed the news while speaking with JoAnna Garcia Swisher during the Tuesday, April 29, episode of her “MeSsy” podcast.
“You’re probably wondering why I’m, like, crying right now. I’m sorry. My dad just passed away a week ago,” Applegate said. (It’s unclear when the podcast episode was recorded.)
“This is the first time I’ve really cried,” Applegate continued. “I think I wasn’t allowing myself to have that yet. Too busy with this, too busy with that. We knew he was going to die. Is that an excuse for not feeling? Because you kind of know that someone’s going to go, and you’ve said your goodbyes.”
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Applegate spoke candidly about her father’s death as Swisher, 45, was detailing her own experience with grieving loved ones. (Swisher’s father died in 2019. Less than two years later, she lost her mom.)
“It is insanely sad. They are a tether. I felt very untethered [after they died],” Swisher said. “I don’t know the relationship that you had with your dad. But my relationship with my dad, he’s a soulmate, and my mom was my best friend.”
Swisher admitted that she did not feel “grown up enough” to lose her parents when they died. (Elsewhere in the episode, Swisher revealed that she had to “take both of my parents off life support and make that decision.”)
“Like, how am I going to have the answers to this?” Swisher added. “There’s so many of those questions that I feel so insanely cheated.”
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Applegate further remembered her father — who was a staff producer at Dot Records — as Tuesday’s podcast episode continued.
“I didn’t grow up with my dad. He and my mom separated when I was, like, 5 months old, but he’s been in my life ever since,” she said. “I have two beautiful siblings and an amazing stepmother, but he wasn’t part of the lessons part of life.”
Applegate also spoke directly about her mom, Nancy Priddy, and how her upbringing has impacted her own experience as a mother. (Applegate and husband Martyn LeNoble share daughter Sadie, born in 2011.)
“My mom, as wonderful as she is — also lovingly, Nancy Priddy, I love you so much, but your tools were a little off,” the actress continued. “But instinctively, as parents, you’re either going to right the wrongs of them before or take what they have.”
Applegate added, “We’re doing such a better job”
