Christina Applegate is reflecting on a painful tragedy.
During Tuesday’s episode of her “MeSsy” podcast, the 53-year-old actress and her co-host, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, spoke to their guest, Robert Iler, about his addiction battle, which sparked Applegate’s rare comments about her late boyfriend Lee Grivas, who died of a drug overdose in 2008.
“I kind of don’t understand sometimes like with Lee — which people know about. You could Google it, whatever,” the “Dead to Me” actress shared.
“My boyfriend who passed away, it was like I tried everything, right?” Applegate said. “And he still wanted to escape.”
“When he passed away, it was just like, ‘’F–k man,’” she added.
Grivas, a fisherman and aspiring photographer, was only 26 when he lost his battle with addiction. He was found dead of a drug overdose in his Hollywood apartment in July 2008.
“I am profoundly saddened,” Applegate said in a statement about her partner’s death at the time.
“Lee was an incredible human being who was an extremely important and beautiful part of my life,” she added. “He is missed beyond words. He touched so many and I feel much sadness for his mother, brother and all of his family and friends.”
The “Samantha Who?” alum met Grivas in 2006 while she was starring in the Broadway show “Sweet Charity.”
Shortly before her relationship with Grivas, Applegate divorced actor Johnathon Schaech after six years of marriage.
Applegate is currently married to Dutch musician Martyn LeNoble. They tied the knot in Feb. 2013 and welcomed a daughter, Sadie, 14.
Earlier this year, Applegate — who has multiple sclerosis — dealt with another tragedy when her father, Robert Applegate, died in April at age 82.
“I lost my dad, but I had someone say, ‘Which part of the stages of grief are you on?’” she said on an episode of her podcast in May. “And it was such a profound thing because I had to say to like one of my dearest friends, like, ‘No. I don’t do stages of grief. There is no set rules as to how I’m grieving this.’”
“There are no set rules, and you have to forgive yourself for that,” she added. “Because when she said that, I was like, ‘Oh, f–k. Maybe I should be doing, you know, anger, denial … till I get to the end of ellipsis and then whatever.’”
Applegate is also continuing to battle MS. The “Married…With Children” alum and Sigler both open up about living with the disease on their “MeSsy” podcast that they started in 2024.
