Christina Applegate First Felt MS Symptoms Years Before Diagnosis: ‘I Didn’t Pay Attention’

Christina Applegate revealed she was likely living with multiple sclerosis for years before she was diagnosed in a new interview with Good Morning America. The segment marked the actress’ first time talking about the autoimmune disease on TV since she was diagnosed in 2021.

“I probably had it for six or seven years, I think,” Applegate said. “I noticed, especially the first season [of the Netflix series Dead to Me], we’d be shooting, and my leg would buckle. I really just put it off as being tired, or I’m dehydrated, or it’s the weather. Then, nothing would happen for months, and I didn’t pay attention. But when it hit this hard, I had to pay attention.”

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Ironically, it was Selma Blair — her co-star in the 2002 rom-com The Sweetest Thing who revealed her own MS diagnosis in 2018 — that recommended to Applegate that she get checked for the disease.

“She goes, ‘You need to be checked for MS.’ I said, ‘No…’ Really? The odds? Two of us from the same movie? C’mon, that doesn’t happen,” Applegate said. “She knew. If not for her, it could have been way worse.”

On Good Morning America, the Married… With Children star appeared along The Sopranos actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who was diagnosed with MS over two decades ago when she was 20. The two actresses recently launched their own podcast, MeSsy, where they discuss living with the disease.

“I live kind of in hell,” Applegate told GMA’s Robin Roberts. “I’m never going to wake up and go, ‘This is awesome.’ I’m just going to tell you that. Like, it’s not going to happen,” she continued. “I wake up, and I’m reminded of it every day … But I might get to a place where I function a little bit better. Right now, I’m isolating, and that’s kind of how I’m dealing with it is by not going anywhere because I don’t want to do it. It’s hard.”

Applegate, who last year announced that she was retiring from appearing on-screen due to MS — she’ll still do voice acting — recently received a lengthy standing ovation when she presented an award at the Emmys. (“You’re totally shaming me by standing up!” Applegate quipped to the audience.)

“People said, ‘Oh, you were so funny,’ and I’m like, ‘I don’t even know what I said,’” Applegate said, adding she “kind of blacked out” during her Emmy moment. “I don’t know what I was doing. I got so freaked out that I didn’t even know what was happening anymore. And I felt really beloved, and it was a beautiful thing.”

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