Christina Applegate was devastated when photographers caught her smoking just months after she won her battle with cancer, because it was a "rare slip up."

Applegate quit the habit after she was diagnosed with the disease last year. She underwent a double mastectomy and was given the all-clear last August. Fans were shocked to discover she was smoking again, after she was photographed enjoying a sneaky cigarette earlier this month.

However, the actress insists it was a minor setback in her battle to quit her nicotine habit after a traumatic past year, during which her ex-boyfriend Lee Grivas died of a drug overdose.

She tells People magazine, "It's been very painful because I feel it was discounting all the work that I've done. The day I found out I had cancer I quit everything that was bad for me that I was putting in my body. Over the last year, with everything that's happened, there have been a couple of times that I've slipped up. That was one of those rare occasions - and of course they got the picture."

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(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)