Christina Applegate has long been known as the woman who once ditched Hollywood's dream man, Brad Pitt, for another guy. Decades later, she has revealed that the guy was Sebastian Bach!
Hollywood is full of wild dating stories and hush-hush celebrity scandals, but few are as surprising as the night actress Christina Applegate walked out on Brad Pitt at an award show. For decades, fans have wondered why the actress left the F1 star hanging at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards, and who the mystery man was behind it. Well, Christina has finally confirmed what many had long suspected.
In her newly released memoir, You With the Sad Eyes, Christina Applegate revealed that she ditched Brad Pitt for former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach. Yes! Pitt, arguably one of the most dashing actors of his era, was left devastated and "very mad", and Applegate admits that she deeply regretted the decision later. So, let's take a look at what actually happened that night and how Pitt handled the unexpected rejection.
We are talking about a time when Brad Pitt was just another struggling actor and hadn't become the superstar we know today. However, Applegate had already made a name for herself when she met him. In 1989, the actress was only 17 years old and quite famous for her breakout role as 'Kelly Bundy' on the hit sitcom, Married... with Children. On the other hand, the then-unknown Brad Pitt, 26, was still finding his roots in Hollywood.
In her memoir, Applegate wrote that she was the one who invited Pitt to attend the MTV Video Music Awards with her. Back then, he had only worked in a select few uncredited roles in films like Hunk and No Man's Land, and had made some television appearances in shows like Dallas, Head of the Class, and Freddy’s Nightmares. It was in 1989 that the actor landed his first major film role, playing 'Dwight Ingalls' in the slasher drama, Cutting Class. He was still years away from landing his breakout role in films like Thelma & Louise (1991) that put him on the track to superstardom.
Brad Pitt was part of Christina's wider social circles in Los Angeles and began dating. However, after accompanying her to the Award show that night, things turned out anticlimactic. Applegate herself admitted in her memoir that she spent much of the evening being captivated by the long-haired Sebastian Bach, the charismatic lead singer of the rising rock band Skid Row. She wrote:
“I had spent all night staring at Bach, who was then a long-haired hunk fronting the band Skid Row. I hate to put it like this, but Brad back then was still making his way as an actor, and he wasn’t yet THE Brad Pitt, the man of so many people’s dreams.”
By the end of the award show, the then-young actress made a spontaneous decision which she later regretted: she left with Bach instead of Pitt. The moment reportedly left Pitt humiliated. But that was not even the worst part; after being unexpectedly left hanging, Pitt had to drive Applegate's mother, Nancy Priddy, and a friend home after the awards ceremony while she headed to the after-party with Bach.
Pitt, utterly humiliated and furious about the situation, allegedly had a tense encounter at a gas station on his way back, which almost led him into a fight "with a bunch of gang members." By then, it was a given that he was "very mad at me (Christina)."
Applegate admitted that the fallout turned out to be rather serious, and the two did not speak for years after that night. He had allegedly spoken about their failed date to his movie star girlfriends, and after his breakout success as Hollywood's dream guy, Applegate became known as "the girl who left Brad behind at the MTV Video Music Awards." The Legends of the Fall star allegedly stayed upset at the actress for years, until he eventually forgave her after both mutually agreed that it was just a childish moment. The Friends actress wrote:
"Much later … two of [Pitt’s] movie star girlfriends asked me if it was true that I was the girl who left Brad behind at the MTV Video Music Awards. Brad had apparently told both of them separately that he was still mad at me."
Christina, who was only a 17-year-old child at that time, soon regretted her decision to choose Sebastian over Brad. Shortly after they began dating, the Vacation star discovered that Bach was already in a long-term relationship and even had a young child. This made the entire situation awkward, and they eventually broke up.
Today, as she looks back at those days, she regrets being the infamous woman who let a dreamy hunk like Brad Pitt go. Eventually, she and Pitt reconciled years later and acknowledged the situation for what it was: a teenage mistake. In her new memoir, Applegate reflects that Pitt “deserved much better,” but they eventually agreed it was time to forgive the “child who dumped him for the lead singer of Skid Row."
For years after the infamous night, the incident remained a Hollywood mystery, with fans wondering who that mystery man was. Her teenage choice to leave with a rock star instead of a future movie legend became one of Hollywood’s most famous dating anecdotes. It was in 2015 when, during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, that Applegate confirmed she had left Pitt for another celebrity at the VMAs but refused to reveal who it was. Fans speculated for years until the memoir finally confirmed it was Sebastian Bach.
Looking back today, Applegate views the moment with a mix of humor and humility. In her memoir, she reflected on her "ability to catch the eye of a then-famous rock star and then ditch someone like Brad Pitt at an after-party" that still failed to make her feel beautiful.
As she now jokes in the book, Brad Pitt became one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, while Sebastian Bach, "well, he still has long hair, I guess.”
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