Christina Applegate Believes She Had MS for ‘Many Years’ Before Diagnosis

Christina Applegate, 52, is opening up about her battle with multiple sclerosis in a new interview with “Good Morning America’s” Robin Roberts.

Applegate was joined by friend Jamie-Lynn Sigler, 42, who was diagnosed with MS at 20 years old. The women are now launching a podcast together called “MeSsy.”

Christina told Roberts, “I live kind of in hell. I’m not out a lot, so this is a little difficult, just for my system. But of course, the support is wonderful and I’m really grateful.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, “Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system). In MS, the immune system attacks the protective sheath (myelin) that covers nerve fibers and causes communication problems between your brain and the rest of your body. Eventually, the disease can cause permanent damage or deterioration of the nerve fibers.”

Applegate explained, “I’m never going to wake up and go, ‘This is awesome.’ I’m just going to tell you that. Like, it’s not going to happen. I wake up and I’m reminded of it every day… But I might get to a place where I function a little bit better. Right now, I’m isolating, and that’s kind of how I’m dealing with it is by not going anywhere because I don’t want to do it. It’s hard.”

Christina was working on “Dead to Me” when she was diagnosed. The star recalled, “The symptoms had started in the early part of 2021, and it was literally just tingling on my toes and by the time we started shooting in the summer of that same year I was being brought to set in a wheelchair.”

She recalled, “I had to tell everybody, because I needed help.”

Applegate believes she may have had the disease for “many, many years” before that.

“I probably had it for six or seven years, I think,” Christina said. “I noticed, especially the first season [of ‘Dead to Me’], we’d be shooting and my leg would buckle. 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. But when it hit this hard, I had to pay attention.”

Her friend and former “The Sweetest Thing” co-star Selma Blair, who also has MS, pushed her to get tested.

Christina said, “She goes, ‘You need to be checked for MS.’ I said, ‘No…’ Really? The odds? Two of us from the same movie? C’mon, that doesn’t happen. She knew. If not for her, it could have been way worse.”

She also touched on her appearance at the Emmys in January, where she made jokes onstage and received a standing ovation. Christina said, "I actually kinda blacked out. People said, 'Oh, you were so funny,' and I'm like, I don't even know what I said. I don't know what I was doing. I got so freaked out that I didn't even know what was happening anymore. And I felt really beloved, and it was really a beautiful thing."

Day to day, Applegate is missing not being able to fully do the things she loves most, like running, dancing, and even being a mom. She said Jamie-Lynn is helping her.

"She keeps me going because... I'm flipping the bird all day long at this thing and I'm angry,” Christina said. “I'm really, really pissed.”

Applegate said of Sigler, “She's like, ‘Okay, I have you, and you are going to be okay. Like, you're going to be okay.' And if not for her... I really, honestly don't know."

Now, they are sharing their lives on the “MeSsy” podcast.

Sigler said it’s like “eavesdropping” on their lives. "That's all it is, and to me, those are my favorite podcasts, where you feel like you just got to, like, somehow listen in on a conversation with people,” she said. “There's no format, no agenda, no questions that were coming, and it's messy. It's for sure a mess."

Christina said she is looking forward to sharing her true colors, "I was kind of putting on a little act for everybody for so long because I just thought that was easier — be light, be funny ... don't make people uncomfortable. And I don't care anymore."