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During a recent episode of her MeSsy podcast, 52-year-old actress Christina Applegate shared details of her health struggles with multiple sclerosis. While discussing the details of the ravaging condition with her co-host Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Applegate revealed she was in a “pretty bad relapse right now” and described the pain she had to live with lately. “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,” the Surviving Christmas star explained.
For Applegate, daily activities like walking to the bathroom have been difficult due to pain in her legs and tingling sensations from her buttocks downward. “My legs have never been this bad, so 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 complained, adding that she has yet to shower for three weeks and relies on alternative methods like Cottonelle for cleanups. She also called out her medical team for their lack of assistance despite reaching out, however, she plans to engage them soon for proper care.
Back in 2021, Applegate, who is a breast cancer survivor, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and she made her discovery public via X, formerly Twitter. “Hi, friends. A few months ago, I was diagnosed with MS,” she began. “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,” the mother of one announced, after which she asked for “privacy as I go through this thing.”
Due to living with MS, Applegate has also suffered up to 30 brain lesions, the biggest one being behind her right eye, causing it to “hurt a lot.” She called her condition “the worst thing that’s happened to me in my entire life,” adding that she often gets “a seizure-y feeling sometimes in my brain.” “It sucks. I hate it so much. I’m so mad about it,” the Samantha Who? actress exclaimed on a recent episode of The Armchair Expert.
Before her ordeal with multiple sclerosis, Applegate battled breast cancer, for which she underwent a double mastectomy in 2008. After beating the disease, she went on to raise awareness and support affected people with the Stand Up To Cancer and Cancer Treatment Centers of America campaign. The actress admitted that her reason for being so vocal about her current battle with multiple sclerosis is that she downplayed the extent of her challenges with cancer. “Everything I was saying was a freaking lie. It was me trying to convince myself of something, and I think that did no service to anyone,” she confessed to Armchair Expert co-hosts Dax Shepard and Monica Padman, adding that despite raising “millions of dollars” for breast cancer prevention, she was “crying every night” while getting treatment. She also hated her post-op body and wished she was more candid about that. “I wish that I had said that. I didn’t like my boobies. I still don’t like my boobies. It’s horrible,” she said.
Applegate is famously known for her role as Kelly Bundy in the ‘90s FOX sitcom Married… with Children. She began her career as a child, with her TV debut alongside her mother, Nancy Priddy, in the soap opera Days Of Our Lives. She also starred in a commercial for Playtex baby bottles as a baby and appeared in her first film as a 10-year-old in the 1981 horror movie Jaws of Satan. So far, Applegate has leveraged her privileged start to build a successful career in Hollywood, earning multiple awards and recognitions, including four Golden Globe nominations and a Tony nod.
The screen icon also guest-starred in two episodes of the fan-favorite show, Friends where she played Jennifer Aniston’s TV sister, Amy Green; season nine’s “The One with Rachel’s Other Sister”; and ten’s “The One Where Rachel’s Sister Babysits.” Applegate’s character as Rachel Green’s sibling earned her a Primetime Emmy award win from two nominations for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. By 2022, Applegate received her well-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame alongside her co-stars Katey Sagal and David Faustino.
More recently, Applegate has leaned into her career as a podcaster with fellow actor and multiple sclerosis patient Sigler; however, she hopes to return to acting soon enough. “I do miss that because, in all honesty, the only thing I ever had my entire life was work. I grew up on sets,” she admitted. “The inner workings, the outer workings of being on a set, is all I really know. I love that place.”
Sigler suggested Applegate would be open to playing a character with multiple sclerosis, but the latter rebutted, saying it would be “too sappy,” to which The Sopranos actress responded by saying she is “not going to press that on you now, but I do know what’s in your future.” Applegate explained that although she misses being needed, “it’s been really nice not to have to be somewhere and not have to be on and push” since she can hardly sleep. “But I know that at some point I’m going to be like, OK, when does someone need me somewhere?” she added.
Applegate is a mother to an adorable 13-year-old whom she shares with her husband, Martyn LeNoble. The couple welcomed Sadie Grace LeNoble in 2011, after which they wedded in 2013. Aside from missing being on set, Applegate admitted during an interview with The Los Angeles Times that she plans to do voiceover roles as a full-time actress as she would like to “make some cash to make sure that my daughter’s fed.” While receiving her Hollywood Walk of Fame star, Applegate thanked Sadie for being with her through her health challenges and called her the most important person in her life. “You are so much more than even you know. You are my everything,” the proud mom gushed. “You are so beautiful and kind and loving and smart and interesting. Thank you for standing beside me through all of this.”
While speaking with PEOPLE for a recent cover story, the Vacation star gave a peek into her life as a mom with multiple sclerosis. Applegate sadly bears the details of how she is unable to be the mother she wants to be for Sadie, as she can hardly perform the usual tasks. “She’s had to see the loss of her mom in the way that I was a mom with her. Dancing with her every day. Picking her up from school every day. Working at her school, working in the library. Being present out of the house, out of my bed. She doesn’t see those things anymore. This is a loss for her as well,” she said. Thankfully, mother and daughter are “both learning as we’re going along” to be present for each other.
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