Christina Applegate suffered from anorexia as a teen actress on 'Married... With Children'

Speaking on her 'MeSsy' podcast, she recalled: "She was always competitive. If I got down to 110 [pounds], she'd be like... 'How'd you do it?'

"And the reason was, I had an eating disorder. I would eat five almonds in a day.

"And if I had six, I would cry and I wouldn't want to leave the house. And that stuck with me for years and years and years."

When she was playing Kelly Bundy on the show, her character often wore short skirts and revealing tops.

Christina explained: "I wanted my bones to be sticking out, so I didn't eat."

This prompted concern from the cast and crew on the sitcom, who did try to speak to the young star about her eating disorder.

She said: "It was very scary to everyone on set because they were like, 'Christina never eats.' They talked to me about it."

At one point in the second season, the costume department had to take in a pair of pants that were a size 0, because they were too big for her, although she felt "enormous".

Years later, Christina realised she had a problem and needed to make changes.

She recalled: "I was sitting on the toilet and I saw only bones and it scared the s*** out of me."

In her 30s, she started to eat normally and "figured it out", but since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), the side effects of both the illness and the medication has meant she has gained 45lbs.

She admitted: "The demon in my head is coming back really loud and it's scaring me. I need to be aware of it so I don't start falling into bad habits of hurting myself."

In January, she joked that her body was "not by Ozempic" as she stepped on stage at the Emmy Awards, and she has now revealed the comment was a defense mechanism.

She said: "I made jokes at the Emmys because...it was like I could see what they were thinking... and I was so humiliated. The demon is saying these things to me."