Applegate was married to the “Takers” actor from October 2001 to August 2007.

Christina Applegate knew her marriage to Johnathon Schaech wouldn’t last at the wedding: ‘This man was not for me’

Applegate was married to the "Takers" actor from October 2001 to August 2007.

By Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2025. Her work has previously appeared on *Entertainment Tonight* and Popsugar.

EW's editorial guidelines

March 3, 2026 11:20 a.m. ET

Leave a Comment

Christina Applegate and Johnathon Schaech attend Miramax 2003 MAX Awards. Credit:

KMazur/WireImage

Christina Applegate reflects on many of her tumultuous relationships in the pages of her new memoir, *You With the Sad Eyes*, published Tuesday, including her first marriage to fellow actor Johnathon Schaech.

The couple's relationship began as Applegate's tenure on *Married…With Children* came to an end in 1997. Schaech, now 56, was at the top of his game, having starred in *That Thing You Do* the previous year. The actors tied the knot in 2001 after four years of dating.

With the help of her excerpts from her journals over the years, Applegate, 54, reveals in the book that she knew the marriage was doomed from the day of their wedding.

"The whole wedding was a master class in anal perfectionism," the Emmy winner writes. "But that wasn't the worst thing. The worst thing was the moment I walked around the corner and into the ceremony. One of my favorite songs was playing, and when I looked hard at the face of my husband-to-be, I thought, 'Oh f---. F---, oh f---.'"

Christina Applegate and Johnathon Schaech's 2001 wedding.

Joe Buissink/WireImage

She continues: "I have advice for women. If you go on a first date with a guy and you don't like his shoes, run — shoes are a telltale sign of whether or not a relationship will last. For our first date, he had shown up in boots, but not even cowboy boots. I think they were supposed to look like a cowboy boot, but they missed the mark by a wide margin. No one should wear such things, but especially not if you live in Los Angeles, California."

Applegate recalls that she spent the whole date fixated on Schaech's "bad shoes," so much so that she had to talk herself out of bailing then and there. "Another voice said, 'You're doing it again. This is the right person for you. He's got his s--- together. He's attractive. He has a career,'" she shares. "We were just very different. I'm scrappy. I tell f---ed-up jokes. I can be offensive and rough around the edges. He was none of those things."

Christina Applegate recalls losing her virginity at 16 while playing promiscuous teen on 'Married With Children'

Christina Applegate reveals she had an abortion at 19 amid abusive relationship: 'I feel I have lost myself'

"I never considered stopping the wedding — for a start, I was halfway down the aisle," Applegate confesses. "I kept thinking, 'Don't be that guy. Don't be that guy. Don't be that guy. You're sabotaging. You're sabotaging. You're sabotaging.' Because there I was in my custom gown, the center of this beautiful f---ing wedding filled with all the perfect that you could possibly imagine. And I knew right then that this man was not it for me."

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our ******EW Dispatch newsletter******.***

Despite her immense doubt, Applegate wed Schaech and the pair remained together until Schaech filed for divorce in December 2005. Their split was finalized by August 2007, and neither actor has spoken publicly about why they chose to end their marriage.

Both actors have remarried since their split; Schaech married Jana Kramer in July 2010 after a seven-month engagement. The pair announced their separation after less than two weeks of marriage in August 2010, and the divorce was finalized in June 2011. Schaech then went on to marry Julie Solomon in July 2013, with whom he shares a son, Camden, born in September 2023, and a daughter, Lillian, born in July 2020.

Christina Applegate and Martyn LeNoble attend the 19th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards.

Ethan Miller/Getty

Meanwhile, Applegate married musician Martyn LeNoble in February 2013 after four years of dating, and the couple shares daughter Sadie, 15.

During an appearance on *Jimmy Kimmel Live* last month, Applegate, who announced in 2021 that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, revealed that she actually shared her journals with her daughter to show that she understands what she's going through as a teen.

"I let her go through that one because I was like, 'You're not unique in the sense of like -- just understand that your mom understands it, right?'" she told the host at the time. "'You know, that like you're hurting and I'm sorry, I'm going to say ... s--- happens, and it's awful.' I needed her to like see that her mom understood that it hurts."

*You With the Sad Eyes* is now available to purchase wherever books are sold.

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Memoirs”