Christina Applegate Gets Real About Battle With MS: ‘It Can Be Very Lonely’

She revealed to Vanity Fair that routines such as taking a shower are scary. (“You can fall, you can slip, your legs can buckle.”) And certain actions she once took for granted are now difficult. For example, she said she can bring something upstairs to her daughter, but “going down the stairs, carrying things — you can’t do that anymore. It f-----g sucks.”

Sharing their MS journey

Applegate estimates she had the disease for “probably six or seven years” before she was diagnosed while filming the final season of Dead to Me. “My symptoms had started in the early part of 2021, and it was, like, literally just tingling on my toes,” Applegate told Good Morning America. “And by the time we started shooting in the summer of that same year, I was being brought to set in a wheelchair. Like, I couldn’t walk that far.”

The physical limitations brought on by the disease left her with no choice: “I had to tell everybody. Because I needed help … and they were wonderful,” she said through tears, looking to Sigler for reassurance and emotional support.

“She keeps me going because ... I’m the one who’s like, I’m flipping the bird all day long at this thing and I’m angry. I’m really, really pissed,” Applegate said. “She’s like, ‘OK, I have you, and you are going to be OK. Like you’re going to be OK.’ And if not for her ... I really honestly don’t know.”

The closely bonded pair will share their journey with MS on a podcast, MeSsy, which launches March 19. Listeners should tune in “to feel seen if they’re going through this,” Applegate said. “To feel heard, even if it’s not MS. I’ve been playing a character called Christina for 40 years, who I wanted everybody to think I was because it’s easier … this is the person I have been this whole time. I was kind of putting on a little act for everybody for so long.”

The Married … With Children actress is also a breast cancer survivor: In 2008, her diagnosis of early stage breast cancer was announced, and after undergoing a double mastectomy, she was declared cancer-free. In her trademark humor, she joked that when it comes to MS, “it’s not my favorite disease. I’ve had a couple. It’s not my favorite one.”

“I’m not putting a time stamp on it,” Applegate said about coming to terms with the disease, which has taken away her ability to pursue her passions for dancing and running and being a mom to the fullest. “I’m never going to wake up and go, ‘This is awesome.’ I’m just going to tell you that — like, it’s just not going to happen,” Applegate said. “I wake up and I’m reminded of it every day. So it’s not going to happen. But I might get to a place where I will function a little bit better.”