Christina Applegate describes her MS relapse: ‘Legs are just done’

Actor Christina Applegate has said that the debilitating pain caused by her multiple sclerosis has left her unable to shower.

On Tuesday’s pre-recorded episode of the MeSsy podcast she hosts with Lynn-Sigler, the 52-year-old said the chronic disease, which affects the brain and central nervous system, had relapsed and described how it was affecting her life.

“I’m gonna be honest with you, I need to buy stock in Cottonelle because I haven’t taken a shower in three weeks,” Applegate told co-host Jamie Lynn-Sigler, who also lives with MS.

“Because I can’t stand in my shower. There’s no f***ing way I can use my shower. I have such a small bench and my ass is so huge these days that I can’t sit on it, it’s like I slip right off of it. So, I’ve been Cottonelle-ing my body.”

“I smell so bad. And it’s, like, awful. Thank God I’m always alone so that no one smells me except for Sades,” she said, referring to her daughter Sadie, 12.

She added that her legs are continuously hurting and that she struggles to get circulation in them.

“I don’t know what’s going on, like, no energy, legs are just done, like, can’t get circulation, I can’t get them to stop hurting,” she explained.

The Dead to Me actor explained how the symptoms were affecting different parts of her body and that she hadn’t been able to sleep because of it.

“I’m in relapse right now, pretty bad. I haven’t slept for 24 hours because my eye is doing something weird, where every time I close my eye to go to sleep, my right eye starts to shift like this,” said Applegate.

A representative for Applegate confirmed to People magazine that the podcast episode was taped “months ago,” and the actor is not currently in a relapse phase.

Applegate made an appearance at the Emmy Awards this year, where she presented an award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy. She even joked, “You’re totally shaming me, with a disability, by standing up — it’s fine!” as the audience gave her a standing ovation.

In August 2021, Applegate revealed that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a few months earlier, and production on Netflix’s Dead to Me had to be halted for five months when she began treatment.

“I got diagnosed while we were working, and I had to call everybody and be like, "I have multiple sclerosis, guys. Like, what the f***!”, she told Variety in November 2022.