Christina Applegate has opened up about her battle with multiple sclerosis, better known as MS, a chronic disease of the central nervous system.
“I’m never gonna wake up and go, ‘This is awesome.’ I’m just gonna tell you that. Like, it’s just not gonna happen,” she shared. “I wake up and I’m reminded of it every day. But I might get to a place where I will function a little bit better.”
“Right now, I’m isolating,” she continued. “And that’s kinda how I’m dealing with it, is by, like, not going anywhere because I don’t want to do it. It’s hard.”
The actress, known for her roles in “The Sweetest Thing” and “Bad Moms,” among others, said she first noticed symptoms in the early part of 2021 prior to filming the final scenes for her Netflix series “Dead to Me.”
“It was literally just tingling in my toes,” she recalled. “And by the time we started shooting in the summer of that year, I was ... in a wheelchair. I couldn’t move that far.”
Ms. Applegate was diagnosed with MS that year and credited her good friend and “The Sweetest Thing” co-star Selma Blair—who announced her own MS diagnosis in 2018—for encouraging her to get tested. “If not for her, it could have been way worse,” she shared.
Ms. Applegate noted she most likely had the disease for six or seven years before being formally diagnosed. “I noticed, especially the first season [of ‘Dead to Me’], we'd be shooting and my leg would buckle,” she recollected.
Living With Multiple Sclerosis
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, multiple sclerosis is a long-lasting autoimmune disorder that essentially causes the body to attack itself.The immune system mistakenly destroys myelin—fatty tissue that protects nerve fibers—causing scar tissue to form, known as lesions. The nerve damage inhibits communication, or electrical impulses, between the brain and other parts of the body.
“They call it the invisible disease,” Ms. Applegate offered. “It can be very lonely because it’s hard to explain to people.”
During her “Good Morning America” interview, the actress was joined by her close friend Jamie-Lynn Sigler. The 42-year-old star of “The Sopranos” has been living with MS for more than two decades after being diagnosed at the age of 20.
“She keeps me going,” Ms. Applegate shared. “Because I’m the one who’s like, I’m flipping the bird all day long at this thing and I’m angry, I’m really, really pissed.”
In return, Ms. Sigler said Ms. Applegate has taught her that she doesn’t always have to be stoic about her struggles with the disease.
‘MeSsy’ Podcast
The two actresses, who have bonded over their shared journey, are now set to co-host a podcast, called “MeSsy,” which will launch on March 19.The podcast will cover their experiences living with multiple sclerosis “as they self-reflect, learn, laugh, and grow through their own raw and often-times hilarious conversations with each other, friends, co-stars, and the people that keep them going through the messiness of life,” per the podcast’s website.
“You’re really eavesdropping on an intimate conversation,” Ms. Sigler said of the project.
“That’s all it is, and to me, those are my favorite podcasts where you feel like you just got to like, somehow listen in on a conversation with people,” she added. “There’s no format, no agenda ... and it’s messy—it’s for sure a mess.”
Ms. Applegate said she hopes the forthcoming podcast will help people “feel seen,” no matter what trials and tribulations they’re experiencing in life.
The actress, who has largely remained out of the public eye since her diagnosis, told Vanity Fair last May that she doesn’t think she will ever act again.
However, as she shared with Ms. Roberts, she now feels like she can be her true self after “putting on a little act for everybody for so long.”
“It’s kind of my coming out party,” she shared.
