Christina Applegate Suffering From "Gross" Sapovirus After Eating Poop
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Originally appeared on E! Online
Christina Applegate is getting candid about a crappy experience.
The Dead to Me star graphically detailed her recent bout of sapovirus, a virus commonly transmitted through fecal-oral contact, colorfully joking that the illness led to "pissing out of my ass for a few days."
"I'm gonna be gross," Christina—who also struggles with multiple sclerosis—shared on the April 23 episode of her MeSsy podcast. "I woke up at 3 o'clock in the morning in a pool of s--t. Didn't know it happened, and having MS at 3 o'clock in the morning and trying to change your sheets, it's not fun."
According to Christina, the health ordeal all began a few weeks ago when someone "real close" to her "dropped the ball" and brought home COVID-19, leading to her contract the virus for the first time. Due to her already being immunocompromised from MS, Christina experienced more severe symptoms, including a chest infection and a speeding heart rate.
"I was so dizzy," she recalled to cohost Jamie-Lynn Sigler. "I was so sick. I couldn't eat. I couldn't anything."
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Amid her illness, Christina took a stool test—during which she started vomiting because it was "so gross"—to figure out what was wrong. Eventually, she was diagnosed with sapovirus.
"It is when you ingest the fecal matter of someone else from your food," the 57-year-old explained of the virus. "Someone else's poop went into my mouth and I ate it."
Christina believes she caught the virus after eating a takeout salad from a restaurant that's about to close down for an unrelated reason.
"I'm almost going on three weeks of being sick from this," she continued, adding sarcastically, "so that's my fun story."
And through dealing with the sapovirus and MS, which can sometimes cause difficulties in bladder control, Christina said she's formed some serious opinions about adult diapers.
"Here's my problem: Why do they make them pretty for women?" the Anchorman alum noted. "Like, 'Hey baby, you wanna get down and dirty in my diaper lingerie with my own urine?'"
For more of Christina's candid takes about her health journey, keep reading.
Health Journey
Christina Applegate shared she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021.
"Hi friends. A few months ago I was diagnosed with MS," she shared on her social media channels that August. "It's been a strange journey. But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition. It's been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going. Unless some a--hole blocks it."
First Public Appearance
"Oh, by the way, I have a disease," she joked during her November 2022 Hollywood Walk of Fame induction ceremony, her first public appearance since her MS diagnosis. "Did you not notice? I'm not even wearing shoes."
Early Symptoms
Christina believes her MS journey actually began "six or seven years" before her 2021 diagnosis.
"I noticed, especially the first season [of Dead to Me], we'd be shooting and my leg would buckle," Christina explained during a March 2024 interview on Good Morning America. "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."
By the time she was shooting the Netflix series' third and final season, the actress said she was "being brought to set in a wheelchair."
"I couldn't move that far," she recalled, "so I had to tell everybody because I needed help."
Making Moves
The Dead to Me star captioned this photo of her cane collection amid her battle with MS: "Walking sticks are now part of my new normal."
Strong Statement
Joined by her daughter Sadie Grace LeNoble, Christina had a simple message for multiple sclerosis while attending the 2023 SAG Awards: "F U MS."
Just Jokes
After a receiving standing ovation at the 2023 Emmys, the Married...With Children alum quipped, "You're totally shaming me with disability by standing up."
Healing Through Humor
"I make these jokes because if I don't, I'll suffocate," Christina shared on a March 2024 episode on Armchair Expert, explaining why she often pokes fun at her condition. "I'll be done."
MS On Her Mind
"I have 30 lesions on my brain," she said on the same podcast. "My biggest one is behind my right eye, so my right eye hurts a lot."
Legions are caused by the immune system attacking the myelin sheath around nerves, according to the Multiple Sclerosis Trust.
Getting Candid
Christina hasn’t held back when it comes to sharing her journey.
"It sucks," the Anchorman actress told late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel of her daily struggles with MS. "I'm not going to lie. I think anyone who has MS isn't going to be like, 'This is the best thing that ever happened to me!'"
In Her Bubble
When talking about her day-to-day life with the disease, Christina told Good Morning America in March 2024, "I live kind of in hell."
"But I might get to a place where I function a little bit better," she added. "Right now, I'm isolating, and that's kind of how I'm dealing with it—by not going anywhere because I don't want to do it. It's hard."
The Sweetest Support
Christina credited her Sweetest Thing costar Selma Blair—who was diagnosed with MS in 2018—for urging her to get tested for the disease.
"She said, 'You need to get checked for MS,'" Christina recalled during her GMA interview. "If not for her, it could've been way worse."
Friendship Never Dies
Christina confirmed that Dead to Me will likely be her last onscreen credit, telling Vanity Fair in May 2023, "I can’t even imagine going to set right now."
"I’m probably not going to work on-camera again, but I'm so glad that I went out with someone who is by far the greatest actress I’ve ever worked with in my entire life," she said of costar Linda Cardellini, "if not the greatest human I’ve ever known.
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