Christina Applegate, 50, Is 'Very Aware' Of How MS Changed Her Body

• Actress Christina Applegate, 50, shared her multiple sclerosis diagnosis with her social media followers last year. She now has to walk with a cane and made her first public appearance this week.

• She is among more than 2.3 million people diagnosed with MS around the world, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

• Christina has been open about her health throughout her career, including a 2008 battle with breast cancer during which she had a double mastectomy.

Actress Christina Applegate, 50, shared a multiple sclerosis update days before the final season of Dead to Me dropped on Netflix. One year after her diagnosis, she revealed that she's been having trouble walking without a cane. And more recently, she was honored with a coveted star during a Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on Monday, Nov. 14. It marked her first public appearance since her diagnosis in 2021.

At the time, she shared a candid update: “A few months ago I was diagnosed with MS. 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 asshole blocks it,” she posted to her Twitter account in 2021.

On Monday, Christina started to cry while giving her speech at the Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony. She thanked her daughter for her support during her MS diagnosis.

“The most important person in this world is my daughter,” she said, per Variety. “You are so much more than even you know. You are so beautiful and kind and smart and interesting. I’m blessed every day that I get to wake up and take you to school…thank you for standing by me through all of this.”

Christina is known for her roles in Bad Moms, Anchorman, Dead to Me, and for her Emmy-award winning 2003 guest appearance on Friends, among many other roles spanning the last three decades.

Actress Selma Blair, who was diagnosed with MS in 2018, rushed to support Christina. "Loving you always. Always here. As are our kids. Beating us up with love," she wrote on Twitter.

Production for the final season of Dead to Me stopped for five months while she began treatment, according to The New York Times, and it'll premiere on Netflix Nov. 17. "It’s not like I came on the other side of it, like, ‘Woohoo, I’m totally fine,’” she told The New York Times. “Acceptance? No. I’m never going to accept this. I’m pissed.”

She got candid about her body's physical changes after her diagnosis. “This is the first time anyone’s going to see me the way I am,” she added. “I put on 40 pounds; I can’t walk without a cane. I want people to know that I am very aware of all of that.”

It was extremely difficult for her to finish wrapping the show. She couldn't work as long in heat without her body giving out, she had trouble walking down stairs, and used a wheelchair to get to set, per The New York Times. But she did it.

“I had an obligation to Liz and to Linda, to our story,” she said. “The powers that be were like, ‘Let’s just stop. We don’t need to finish it. Let’s put a few episodes together.’ I said, ‘No. We’re going to do it, but we’re going to do it on my terms.’”

She also said that "finishing the series was the hardest thing" that she has ever done.

Christina is among more than 2.3 million people diagnosed with MS around the world, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Nearly 1 million people over the age of 18 live with MS in the United States.

MS attacks the central nervous system and disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body, according to the Mayo Clinic. Though symptoms vary on a case-by-case basis, those diagnosed with MS can experience vision problems, numbness in the limbs, dizziness, and fatigue.

There is currently no cure for MS, though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved medications that modify the course of the disease, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Christina has been open about her health throughout her career, including a 2008 battle with breast cancer during which she had a double mastectomy. In 2017, Applegate had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to reduce her cancer risk.

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