Christina Applegate believes she could have had multiple sclerosis for up to seven years before she was officially diagnosed with the autoimmune disease in 2021.
Battling symptoms on and off, the Emmy winner and “Married… With Children” alum said she put off getting a doctor's checkup even though her legs were failing her while filming the first season of her Netflix comedy “Dead to I”.
“I really put it off because I'm tired, or I'm dehydrated, or it's the weather,” Applegate said this week in an interview that aired on ABC's “Good Morning America.” “And then nothing happened for months and I didn’t pay attention.”
Multiple sclerosis, or MS, affects the nervous system and often causes progressive physical and cognitive decline. It is an autoimmune condition in which the body attacks myelin, the protective tissue that surrounds nerve fibers, disrupting signals to and from the brain, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
In her first on-camera meeting since her diagnosis, Applegate was accompanied by “Sopranos” alum Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who also suffers from the incurable disease. Sigler, who will launch the “MeSsy” podcast with Applegate on March 19, was diagnosed with MS in 2001, at age 20, but she did not reveal her diagnosis until 2016.
Applegate, 52, and Sigler, 42, talked about how they support each other, something they will likely discuss on the podcast.
“For so long, I've been celebrated for being the strong, positive one that I felt like I wasn't if I admitted that some days were hard,” Sigler said. “But [Applegate] It really pushed me to be able to say that. [it was hard]because I thought I was letting people down if I talked about how hard it was sometimes.”
Nearly 1 million people live with MS in the United States, according to 2019 figures cited by the Multiple Sclerosis Association. from America. Most people with MS experience their first symptoms and are diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 50 (although people of any age can be diagnosed with MS). More women are diagnosed with MS than men, the association stated.
Sigler said he remains hopeful for advances in treatments for the disease and noted that there are medications available to help slow the progression of MS and decrease the frequency and intensity of patients' symptoms.
“There is a small hope that maybe one day we won't live with this,” Sigler said. “It's hard to let that go.”
Applegate publicly shared her diagnosis in 2021, shortly after she was unable to walk alone while filming the final season of “Dead to Me.” She told Roberts that her symptoms began in early 2021 and presented as “just a tingling” in her toes.
“When we started filming in the summer of that same year, they took me to the set in a wheelchair. Like I couldn’t walk that far,” Applegate said.
Her friend and “The Sweetest Thing” co-star Selma Blair, who was diagnosed with MS in 2018, urged Applegate to get tested.
“She told me, 'You need to get tested for MS,' and I said, 'No.' I said, 'Really? The odds? Both of us from the same movie. Come on, that's not going to happen, that's not going to happen,'” Applegate said. “She knew. If it wasn't for her, it could have been a lot worse.”
Applegate The actress has been open about her health issues throughout her career, and previously discussed her battle with breast cancer in 2008, after which she underwent a double mastectomy and had her ovaries and tubes removed. of Fallopian.
But with MS, she described living in a “kind of hell” and isolating herself to deal with “the invisible illness,” which she says is very lonely and involves unbearable pain. She's “just used to it.”
“I've played a character named Christina for 40 years, and I wanted everyone to think that's who I am because it's easier,” Applegate said. “But this is kind of a coming out party. This is… the person I've been all this time.
“I was doing a bit of acting for everyone for a long time because I thought it was easier: to be light, to be fun… not to make people uncomfortable. And I don't care anymore.”
Although she is grateful for the support she has received, she still faces many challenges.
“I'm never going to wake up and say, 'This is amazing.' I'm just going to tell you that. It’s like it’s not going to happen,” she said. “I wake up and remember it every day. …But it might get to a point where it works a little better. Right now I'm isolated, and that's how I deal with it, by not going anywhere because I don't want to. It's hard.”
The Tony Award-nominated “Sweet Charity” star said she doesn't go out much and that even sitting down for the “GMA” interview, which took place in a hotel, “is a little difficult, just for my system.”
The actress also reflected on the emotional reception during her January appearance at the Primetime Emmy Awards. The message “Samantha who?” The star received a standing ovation when she came on stage using a cane and made jokes about the audience “embarrassing me because of her handicap in standing” and her “body not Ozempic.”
But Applegate said he “actually fainted” during the launch concert.
“People were like, 'Oh, you were so funny,' and I was like, 'I don't even know what I said,'” he told Roberts. “I don't know what he was doing. I was so scared that I didn't even know what was happening anymore. And I felt really loved, and it was a really beautiful thing.”
Then, with his characteristic wit, he said: “That public defended everyone.”
