David Faustino says he talks often with his former Married… With Children costar Christina Applegate as she lives with multiple sclerosis, offering a reminder that the Bundy family bond didn’t end when the Fox sitcom went off the air. Their off‑screen friendship, shaped by decades in the industry and Applegate’s public MS diagnosis, reflects how nostalgia TV, fandom, and real-life health battles now intersect in Hollywood.


Once a Bundy, Always a Bundy: Why This Reunion Matters Now

The ’80s and ’90s sitcom era is having a long second life through streaming, podcasts, and convention culture, but most “reunions” are nostalgic photo ops or promotional stunts. The relationship between David Faustino (Bud Bundy) and Christina Applegate (Kelly Bundy) is something else entirely: a sustained friendship navigating adulthood, parenthood, and now a serious health condition in the harsh light of fame.

In a recent Entertainment Weekly conversation, Faustino emphasized that he and Applegate are still in regular contact, checking in as she manages life and work with multiple sclerosis. For fans who grew up on Married… With Children, it’s a quietly moving epilogue to one of TV’s most dysfunctional families.

David Faustino and Christina Applegate from Married... With Children cast reunion photo
David Faustino and Christina Applegate, who played Bud and Kelly Bundy on Married… With Children, have stayed close long after the sitcom’s run. (Image: Entertainment Weekly publicity still)

From Fox’s Wild-Card Sitcom to Comfort-View Classic

When Married… With Children premiered on Fox in 1987, it was the scrappy network’s anti‑Cosby Show: loud, crass, and proud of it. The Bundys weren’t aspirational; they were deliberately chaotic, blue‑collar, and often deeply inappropriate by today’s standards. But that’s exactly why the show became a cult hit and a defining text of early Fox programming.

David Faustino grew up on the set, evolving Bud from awkward teen into self‑aware punchline, while Christina Applegate’s Kelly Bundy channeled the era’s “ditzy blonde” trope into something sharper and more self‑possessed than she often got credit for. Alongside Ed O’Neill and Katey Sagal, the pair created a TV family that somehow felt real beneath the satire.

The Bundys became Fox’s original dysfunctional TV family, paving the way for series like The Simpsons and Family Guy. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Christina Applegate’s MS Diagnosis and Public Vulnerability

Christina Applegate revealed her multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2021, during the run of her Netflix dark comedy Dead to Me. Since then, she’s been frank about the physical and emotional realities of living with MS, from mobility challenges to reevaluating how and when she works.

“It’s been a strange journey. But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition. It’s been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going.”
— Christina Applegate, on living with MS

In this context, Faustino’s comments land differently than standard cast‑reunion nostalgia. When he says the two “speak often,” it’s not just about reminiscing over old scripts—it’s about showing up for a friend facing a chronic, unpredictable neurological condition.

Applegate’s approach has also subtly shifted how the industry talks about disability and chronic illness. Awards appearances, podcast interviews, and her own dry, cutting humor have made her one of the more visible faces of MS in pop culture, without reducing her identity to the diagnosis.

Christina Applegate has become a prominent public voice on living and working with multiple sclerosis, while maintaining her long career in television and film. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

David Faustino and Christina Applegate: A TV Sibling Bond That Stuck

What makes Faustino’s recent remarks resonate is their simplicity: no grand speech, no oversharing, just a matter‑of‑fact acknowledgment that he and Applegate remain in each other’s lives. For two actors who essentially grew up together on a set famous for its sarcasm, that’s its own kind of character development.

Onscreen, Bud and Kelly were relentless enemies: trading insults, sabotaging each other’s schemes, and reducing sibling rivalry to an art form. Offscreen, by most accounts, they built a familial relationship that survived long breaks between gigs and the peculiar aging process of former child and teen stars.

“Once you do a show like that for 10 years, those people are in your DNA. We’re always going to be in each other’s lives, no matter what.”
— David Faustino on the Married… With Children cast dynamic

In an industry where former co‑stars often cross paths only at reunions or retrospectives, Faustino checking in regularly with Applegate feels refreshingly human. It also quietly models how colleagues—and by extension, fans—can think about supporting people living with chronic illness: consistently, respectfully, and without turning their condition into spectacle.


Rethinking Married… With Children in 2026: Problematic, Pivotal, and Weirdly Tender

Rewatching Married… With Children through a 2020s lens is a complicated exercise. The series is full of jokes that wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) fly today, from body‑shaming to gender stereotypes that feel like artifacts from another planet. At the same time, it cracked open space for working‑class satire and deeply imperfect parents in primetime.

The show’s legacy is less about “this aged well” and more about “this shaped the landscape.” Its DNA runs through everything from Roseanne and Malcolm in the Middle to animated chaos like The Simpsons, which premiered just two years after the Bundys arrived on Fox.

  • As comedy history: It helped define Fox’s edgy brand, pushing against network standards of the time.
  • As character study: Bud and Kelly offered a warped but recognizable version of ’90s teenhood.
  • As cultural artifact: It’s a time capsule of pre‑Internet, pre‑prestige TV humor that still fuels online memes and clip culture.
Retro television set with static on the screen in a dimly lit room
Sitcoms like Married… With Children evolved from “background TV” to endlessly rewatched comfort shows in the streaming era. (Image: Pexels)

Knowing what Applegate has gone through in recent years inevitably colors the way fans engage with those old episodes. The loud studio audience, the slapstick pratfalls, the relentless physical humor—all of it looks different when you’re thinking about a performer now navigating neurological symptoms and fatigue.


MS, Celebrity, and How Hollywood Talks About Chronic Illness

Christina Applegate is part of a broader wave of performers being more open about serious diagnoses: think Selma Blair (also living with MS), Michael J. Fox (Parkinson’s), or Shannen Doherty (breast cancer). That visibility can’t replace medical care or policy change, but it does shift public awareness in small but meaningful ways.

Applegate’s frankness about good days and bad days, along with her decision to scale back live appearances, has also challenged Hollywood’s image machine, which often demands that stars appear “fine” no matter what. Her former castmates acknowledging her reality—without centering themselves—is a subtle but important part of that narrative.

  • It normalizes mobility aids and adaptive choices on red carpets and at events.
  • It nudges studios and sets to rethink accessibility and scheduling.
  • It reminds fans that chronic illness isn’t always visible—and that support can be low‑drama and consistent.
Person walking with a cane in a hallway, symbolizing mobility support
Celebrity disclosures of chronic illness and mobility challenges can help normalize assistive devices and spark wider conversations about accessibility. (Image: Pexels)

Nostalgia, Reality, and the Evolving Legacy of the Bundys

The latest wave of headlines about David Faustino and Christina Applegate isn’t about reboots, reunion specials, or resurrecting the Bundys as a prestige dramedy. It’s about something smaller and more grounded: two people who once played cartoonish siblings staying connected as one of them faces a serious, lifelong diagnosis.

That doesn’t erase the messy parts of Married… With Children or suddenly make every joke age like fine wine. What it does do is complicate the nostalgia. The show was always about a family that refused to abandon each other, no matter how outrageous the insults. Decades later, that theme is still playing out—just more quietly, and offscreen.

  1. As television history: The series remains a key chapter in Fox’s rise and in the evolution of the family sitcom.
  2. As a cultural touchstone: It continues to spark debate about what “edgy” comedy looked like before social media.
  3. As a real-life story: The enduring Faustino–Applegate friendship shows how on‑set relationships can mature into long‑term support networks.
Friends sitting together on a couch watching television, seen from behind
For many viewers, revisiting older sitcoms isn’t just about jokes—it’s about reconnecting with the people and eras those shows represent. (Image: Pexels)

As Applegate continues to navigate life with MS, and Faustino continues to check in as a friend, the Bundys’ afterlife becomes less about crass punchlines and more about persistence, resilience, and the strange intimacy of growing up on television. The show may belong to the past, but the relationships it forged are still very much unfolding in real time.

For fans, that might be the most meaningful “reboot” of all: not a new season, but a new way of understanding the people behind the characters—and the real solidarity that sometimes survives long after the final curtain call.

For more on the cast and the original series, see the official listings on IMDb and coverage at Entertainment Weekly’s TV section.