Christina Applegate has ovaries removed

The 'Sweetest Thing' star - who has a six-year-old daughter Sadie with her husband Martyn LeNoble - has taken drastic action to prevent her from developing ovarian cancer after her cousin passed away from the disease nine years ago.

Speaking to Today.com, she said: "Two weeks ago, I had my ovaries and [fallopian] tubes removed. My cousin passed away from ovarian cancer in 2008. I could prevent that. That's how I've taken control of everything. It's a relief. That's one other thing off the table. Now, let's hope I don't get hit by a bus."

The 45-year-old actress had a double mastectomy in 2008 after she was diagnosed with breast cancer so, although she doesn't need mammograms anymore, she still pays regular visits to her oncologist and will have to do that for the rest of her life. Pictured below is before and after her mastectomy. 

She explained: "I don't need mammograms anymore. I don't have breasts.

I go every six months to my oncologist. It used to be every three months.

"They still check me out as if I had all my parts. That's never going to go away. If you know you're high risk, you need to go start as soon as possible."

Christina - who follows a vegetarian diet - tries to eat as clean as possible because she believes food pays a huge part in whether cancer will develop and spread.

She said: "The first thing is to be really diligent about what you're putting into your body, as far as what kind of food you're eating.

Organic is expensive. I get that. I don't want to alienate anyone who can't pay for that ... Try to stay away from the foods that are filled with chemicals. Be a little more diligent and carve out as much of the bad stuff that you can. The other big killer is stress. That's a hard thing to say to people especially right now. We're living in a bizarre time. We're bombarded by what's going on in our world. Breathe deeper.

That's a big one for me. I used to be a stressed out person. I'm not anymore. I try to find the lining in everything in life."

The blonde beauty's daughter Sadie also follows a vegan diet as there's a "high chance" she may have inherited the BRCA mutation gene

- meaning she has over 50 percent chance of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer in her lifetime - and she has admitted it "breaks her heart" to think she may have to battle the disease.

Christina explained: "The chances that my daughter is BRCA positive are very high. I look at her and feed her the cleanest foods.

"I try to keep her stress levels down. I'm doing everything I can on my end knowing that in 20 years, she'll have to start getting tested.

Hopefully, by then there will be advancements. It breaks my heart to think that's a possibility."

-Bang! Showbiz