David Faustino played Christina Applegate‘s annoying younger brother on Married … With Children — but in real-life he is one of her biggest supporters, especially amid her multiple sclerosis battle.
“It’s extremely difficult for me to understand having a debilitating disease,” Faustino, 52, exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, June 9, while promoting his Bundy Club special event with Ed O’Neill. “I can’t. I don’t know what that’s like. I can only go from her experience and what she’s told me.”
The actor, who has known Applegate, 54, since he was a teenager, revealed that she has made it clear that “it’s extremely difficult” to manage her multiple sclerosis (MS), which she was diagnosed with in 2021.
“I admire her being strong in the face of this, even though it’s been a real blow,” Faustino told Us of his former TV sister. “It’s been very hard for her, but she does keep her humor.”
Faustino shared that Applegate has had a “dry, sarcastic sense of humor since the moment I met her” and luckily, “Nothing has changed.”
He confirmed the Dead to Me actress is still “extremely sarcastic, extremely dry” as she continues to battle the disease. (MS is a disease that causes “breakdown of the protective covering of nerves” and can lead to numbness, weakness, trouble walking, vision changes and more symptoms, according to Mayo Clinic.)
“She gets through this with some humor, and that’s kind of her way that she moves through it,” Faustino told Us, noting that his role is to “just [be] there as a support, as a person on her team that gives her as much love as I can.”
Faustino revealed that since Applegate went public with her health struggles, he has remained part of her close circle.
“I do a lot of visits with her. A lot of texting, a lot of checking in,” he said. “A lot of funny just crap that we talk about. And that’s all I can do, right? Give her my love.”
Faustino added, “We do have deep convos when we sit. But we also keep the laughter [going] as well.”
Faustino and Applegate rose to fame alongside one another as Bud and Kelly Bundy, respectively, on Married … With Children. The sitcom ran from 1987 to 1997 and also starred O’Neill, 80, and Katey Sagal as their parents, Al and Peggy Bundy.
Since the Emmy-nominated series ended, Faustino and Applegate have kept in touch. Faustino and Sagal, 72, were even part of Applegate’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in November 2022.
Faustino has also been a big advocate for fundraising efforts to help find a cure for MS. He is a frequent fixture at the annual Race to Erase MS Gala hosted in Los Angeles every year.
Applegate, for her part, has been vocal about her health journey, most recently giving fans an update in April after reports surfaced that she was hospitalized amid a recent flare up.
“I have no comment whether she is in the hospital or what her medical treatments are,” a rep for the actress told Us at the time. “She’s had a long history of complicated medical conditions that she has been refreshingly open about, as evidenced in her memoir and on her podcast.”
Applegate, meanwhile, took to Instagram on April 20, writing, “Thank you for the outpouring of love and well wishes. Health issues are a constant for me, but I’m a strong chick and I’m getting stronger and better every day. I’m taking a moment to focus on my health, but I’ll be back with more to say soon enough.”
As Applegate continues to focus on her health, Faustino is keeping the Married … With Children fandom alive thanks to the Bundy Club.
Faustino is the cofounder of the Bundy Club (a members only podcast), which is hosting a special live event in front of a dedicated audience on Thursday, June 11, at 9 p.m. ET with O’Neill as the special guest.
“Ed doesn’t really do many things like this,” Faustino told Us of the show, which is available to watch via Zoom. “The fans are super excited because now they’ll get to be in on a somewhat intimate conversation, but they’ll get to see us in a completely different light than they’ve really ever seen us before.”
Tickets for O’Neill and Faustino’s reunion are available online now.
