Christina Applegate reveals she ditched Brad Pitt for rock star at 1989 MTV VMAs

Christina Applegate has revealed she once left Brad Pitt at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards to spend the night with a rock star, a moment she recounts in her new memoir You With the Sad Eyes.

The Dead to Me actor, now 54, writes that she invited Pitt to the Los Angeles ceremony as her date after the two had been “platonic pals for the longest time”.

At the time, Applegate was just 17 and enjoying the success of her hit sitcom Married… with Children. She recalls wearing a Ceil Chapman gown that made her feel “incredible” and confident at the event.

But by the end of the night, Applegate says she left the awards show with Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach instead.

“In fact,” she writes in the memoir, “I felt so powerful and sure of myself for once that when the awards show was over, I left with Sebastian Bach, not Brad Pitt.”

Applegate admits she had been eyeing Bach throughout the evening, noting that Pitt was still early in his acting career at the time.

“He wasn’t yet THE Brad Pitt,” she writes, referring to the global fame he would achieve just a few years later after his breakthrough role in Thelma & Louise in 1991.

According to the actor, Pitt ended up driving her mother and a friend home from the event after she left with the rock singer.

“He was left to sullenly drive them home,” Applegate recalls, adding that Pitt was “very mad” afterwards.

“We didn’t talk for many years after that,” she writes.

Applegate previously hinted at the story during a 2015 appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. At the time, she confirmed she had left Pitt for another famous man that night but refused to reveal his identity.

Her new memoir finally confirms the mystery date was Bach, although Applegate says the encounter did not lead to a relationship.

The book also explores other chapters of her life, including her childhood, abusive relationships, motherhood and her health battles with breast cancer and multiple sclerosis.

“This is not an inspirational book by any means,” Applegate said in a recent interview about the memoir. “But it can inspire.”

You With the Sad Eyes is out now.