Christina Applegate Unlocks Her Teenage Journals: "I Was Madly in Love with Johnny Depp"

In her raw new memoir, You with the Sad Eyes, Christina Applegate opens her childhood journals to reveal a deep, multi-year crush on friend and peer Johnny Depp.

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 4, 2026, 6:17 AM EST

Source: People

Secret Locked in the Closet

For the nearly 300-page memoir, Applegate, 54, revisited journals she hadn't touched in decades. She admits that at age 15, Depp who was eight years her senior and part of her extended Los Angeles "friend group" was the primary subject of her romantic fixation. "I can't sit here and wish he was something that he’s not," one teenage entry reads. "I can't change him. But yet I wish I could get through to him." Applegate notes that her feelings were "complicated and ever-changing," describing vivid, "strange dreams" about the future Pirates of the Caribbean star that she would frantically document upon waking.

The "Disney High" of the 80s: Depp, Pitt, and Friendships

Applegate’s memoir paints a picture of a 1980s Hollywood that felt like a localized "high school" for future A-listers. Her social circle included Depp, her best friend Sam Sarkar, and a "little-known actor named Brad Pitt." While her feelings for Depp were romantic and "madly in love," she clarifies that her bond with Pitt was strictly platonic at least until the infamous 1989 MTV Video Music Awards. In a now-viral story from the book, she recounts dumping Pitt at the awards show to go home with Sebastian Bach, the lead singer of Skid Row, leaving a "sullen" Pitt to drive her mother home.

Transformative Analysis: The "Honesty Missile" Approach to Legacy

In 2026, Applegate describes herself as an "honesty missile," a byproduct of her physical struggle with MS. Strategically, this memoir marks a transition from "America’s Sweetheart" to a "Resilient Truth-Teller." By revealing her past crushes and teenage insecurities, Applegate is humanizing the "Kelly Bundy" icon, breaking down the artifice of 80s stardom to reveal the vulnerable child underneath. This radical transparency is not just for entertainment; it is a survival mechanism. As she puts it, "When your life shrinks to the size of a king-sized bed, suddenly all the things you thought were important shift." This shift allows her to own her narrative including her unrequited love for Depp before anyone else can tell it for her.