"Is That Tiny Red Flag a Relationship Dealbreaker? Christina Applegate Reveals the Shocking Truth Behind First Date ‘Icks’!"
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Isn’t it wild how sometimes the tiniest detail can completely derail our lives? I mean, divorce lawyers often hear clients say they knew their marriage was on shaky ground long before it crumbled! Actor Christina Applegate, for instance, had an inkling her relationship with Johnathon Schaech was doomed from the start—thanks to a pair of shoes that made her feel the “ick.” In her new memoir, she dives into the important lesson of trusting those gut instincts, even if they try to butt in at the most inconvenient moments. Applegate’s story not only reveals her tumultuous marital journey but also serves as a humorous reminder that sometimes, it’s the little things—like footwear—that can be big signs of trouble ahead. Curious to see how this unfolds? LEARN MORE.
Divorce lawyers often say their clients tell them they knew their marriage was over long before it hit the rocks. And for actor Christina Applegate, she knew she’d divorce Johnathon Schaech right from the beginning, all because of a tiny detail that gave her the “ick” right off the bat.
In her new book, Applegate talks at length about her marriage to Schaech, which ended in divorce in 2007, and it’s a master class in following your gut, even if what it’s telling you couldn’t possibly come at a more inconvenient time.
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Applegate told The New York Times she had previously decided to burn her journals. Instead, she decided to publish them in her new memoir, “You With the Sad Eyes.” In the book, she gets candid not just about her long film and TV career, which began when she was just one year old, but also her battles with beating cancer in 2008, being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021, and the abuse she suffered as a child.
But within her memoir also comes some handy advice about the power of listening to your gut, especially when it comes to relationships. Applegate, with her trademark wit, delves into her relationship with fellow actor Johnathon Schaech, whom she met in 1997 and married in 2001, and why it ended in divorce in 2007.
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In her book, Applegate said she knew the relationship was doomed basically right from the start, though, as happens with so many of us, it took her years to realize it. But what first tipped her off? The shoes Schaech wore on their very first time hanging out.
Applegate wrote that Schaech’s shoes gave her the “ick” so bad that she issued the following piece of advice in the book: “If you go on a first date with a guy and you don’t like his shoes, run.”
She said that a man’s shoes are a “telltale sign of whether or not a relationship will last,” and one she herself refused to listen to. On their first date, Applegate described Schaech’s shoes as “boots, but not even cowboy boots.”
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They seemed more like something that was trying to LOOK like a cowboy boot but “missed the mark by a wide margin.” Whatever they were, she wittily wrote that “no one should wear such things, but especially not if you live in Los Angeles, California.”
Of course, it’s never REALLY about the shoes, right? There was something off about their attraction. But he was such a good fit on paper, she didn’t listen. “Another voice [in my head] said, ‘You’re doing it again. This is the right person for you,” she wrote. “He’s got his [life] together. He’s attractive. He has a career.” But they had very little in common, and it was clear right from the jump.
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After ignoring the signals from Schaech’s shoes, Applegate wrote that she had one final chance to save them both from the heartbreak that would ensue: their wedding.
Applegate vividly recalled entering her own wedding, about to walk down the aisle, and knowing definitively that she was doing the wrong thing. “The worst thing was the moment I walked around the corner and into the ceremony,” she wrote. “One of my favorite songs was playing, and when I looked hard at the face of my husband-to-be, I thought, ‘Oh [expletive].'”
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By the time she was “halfway down the aisle,” she knew she was in trouble. But she couldn’t bring herself to call off the wedding. “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,’” she recalled.
“Because there I was in my custom gown, the center of this beautiful [expletive] wedding filled with all the perfect that you could possibly imagine,” she went on to say. “And I knew right then that this man was not it for me.”
Ouch. Thankfully, Schaech and Applegate have remained friendly since their split. Regardless, Applegate’s story just goes to show the power of trusting your gut. It may not seem like it, but a ruined wedding is far less of a hassle than a divorce. And if you pay attention to whatever your version of “shoe ick” might be, no matter how petty, it might save you from the ruined wedding, too.
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John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
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