Christina Applegate has been a star since she was young, so much of her love life happened in the public eye. Her first marriage was to Johnathon Schaech. Although they were married for a long time by Hollywood standards, they eventually divorced. When the couple called it quits, Schaech struggled to go on.
Christina Applegate and Johnathon Schaech
In 1997, toward the end of the sitcom that made her famous, Married…with Children, Christina Applegate started dating Johnathon Schaech. According to US Weekly, the couple went out for four years before getting married in 2001.
Schaech is also an actor, and he said that their work defined their relationship. “My marriage was connected to my career, everything about my work. It was, you know, Christina is an actress. We were in the limelight,” he said. “I loved her so much.”
Despite this connection, the couple separated in 2005, and their divorce was finalized in 2007. Although their split was amicable, Schaech was devastated by it.
‘I felt that I had failed everyone,’ said Schaech
The end of their marriage was a huge blow to Johnathon Schaech, not only because he once described Christina Applegate as the love of his life.
“Being raised Catholic and having parents that are still together over 50 years, I felt I failed everyone,” he explained. “I thought God had given up on me. Sex, drugs, alcohol and dark nights became who I was. I knew I needed to find someone who loved me as much as I loved them.”
He married singer Jana Kramer in 2010, but they split up after only 12 days. He later explained that he wasn’t emotionally ready for a new relationship. He felt that he needed time to heal before he was able to start over with a new partner.
For her part, Applegate didn’t have much to say in public about their divorce, although she has remained positive when speaking about Schaech as a person. However, not long after they broke up, she had her own struggles to face.
New relationships for Applegate and Schaech
According to Marie Claire, Christina Applegate became engaged to Dutch musician Martyn LeNoble in 2010. However, they had already been together for a couple of years–and they were intense years.
In 2008, a year after her divorce from Johnathon Schaech was final, Applegate was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had just started dating LeNoble, and despite the newness of their relationship, he supported her through her treatment and recovery.
“I have a small but mighty support system and Martyn has really been an incredible part of my life,” she said. “Without him, I don’t know if I could’ve gone through any of it. He came around at a time when there was a lot of loss in my life on many levels, so he’s been a really incredible help.”
The couple had a daughter, Sadie, in 2011 and married in 2013.
For his part, Schaech also remarried in 2013 to Julie Soloman. They are still married and have two children together.
Applegate has faced other serious health issues since her marriage to LeNoble. In 2017, she had surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes. She had it done as a preventative measure against ovarian cancer, which runs in her family.
Last year, she was confronted with another problem when she was diagnosed with MS. The autoimmune disorder has caused her to need a cane to walk.
As she grapples with this new challenge, Applegate will need her “small but mighty support system” again. That will obviously include her husband, but her ex-husband will probably be rooting for her too.
