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Christina Applegate Shares She's Mostly Confined to Her Bedroom Amid MS Battle
Christina Applegate isn't afraid to be frank about multiple sclerosis.
Since receiving her diagnosis in 2021, the Dead to Me star has been candid about her struggles with the disease—which is caused when the body's immune system mistakenly attacks the central nervous system.
Though the neurodegenerative illness has left Christina with multiple brain lesions, chronic pain, a double kidney infection and mobility issues, the 53-year-old refuses to let it get her down, approaching the topic of her health with humor and honesty.
"I make these jokes because if I don't, I'll suffocate. I'll be done," she explained on a March 2024 episode of Armchair Expert. "I'm not ready for the healing yet. I will get there."
For now, though, she's getting through it with a bit of dark humor.
"For people who have a disease like this, you never know," Christina shared on the March 19 episode of NPR's Wild Card. "I bought my plots already, OK? I bought them."
In fact, she added of her future resting place, "My friend and I are going to go take a picnic there. It's really pretty where it is." It just needs a tree to dress it up "'cause it's really sunny. And I want my visitors to not be sweating."
After surviving cancer, Christina's learned not to sugarcoat matters concerning her health.
"My first interview was with Robin Roberts when I had cancer and I'm sitting there lying my a-- off about how I felt," recalled the Married...With Children alum, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008. "I fell into the wall and sobbed because it was a lie. 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."
So, when Christina sat down with Robin again in 2024—this time to discuss her MS journey—she didn't mince words.
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"I live kind of in hell," she bluntly told the Good Morning America anchor, adding that she's "really, really pissed" to be diagnosed with MS. "I'm never going to wake up and go, 'This is awesome.'"
Christina added, "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."
That and simply continuing to battle, the star revealing she's been hospitalized upwards of 30 times due to complication of her condition.
And while her rep declined to comment on recent reports she's been in the hospital, she told E! News in a statement, "She's had a long history of complicated medical conditions that she has been refreshingly open about, as evidenced in her memoir and on her podcast."
And the actress intends to continue keeping it all the way real.
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Health Journey
Christina Applegate shared she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021.
"Hi friends. A few months ago I was diagnosed with MS," she shared on her social media channels that August. "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 a--hole blocks it."
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First Public Appearance
"Oh, by the way, I have a disease," she joked during her November 2022 Hollywood Walk of Fame induction ceremony, her first public appearance since her MS diagnosis. "Did you not notice? I'm not even wearing shoes."
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Early Symptoms
Christina believes her MS journey actually began "six or seven years" before her 2021 diagnosis.
"I noticed, especially the first season [of Dead to Me], we'd be shooting and my leg would buckle," Christina explained during a March 2024 interview on Good Morning America. "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."
By the time she was shooting the Netflix series' third and final season, the actress said she was "being brought to set in a wheelchair."
"I couldn't move that far," she recalled, "so I had to tell everybody because I needed help."
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Making Moves
The Dead to Me star captioned this photo of her cane collection amid her battle with MS: "Walking sticks are now part of my new normal."
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Strong Statement
Joined by her daughter Sadie Grace LeNoble, Christina had a simple message for multiple sclerosis while attending the 2023 SAG Awards: "F U MS."
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Just Jokes
After a receiving standing ovation at the 2023 Emmys, the Married...With Children alum quipped, "You're totally shaming me with disability by standing up."
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Healing Through Humor
"I make these jokes because if I don't, I'll suffocate," Christina shared on a March 2024 episode on Armchair Expert, explaining why she often pokes fun at her condition. "I'll be done."
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MS On Her Mind
"I have 30 lesions on my brain," she said on the same podcast. "My biggest one is behind my right eye, so my right eye hurts a lot."
Legions are caused by the immune system attacking the myelin sheath around nerves, according to the Multiple Sclerosis Trust.
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Getting Candid
Christina hasn’t held back when it comes to sharing her journey.
"It sucks," the Anchorman actress told late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel of her daily struggles with MS. "I'm not going to lie. I think anyone who has MS isn't going to be like, 'This is the best thing that ever happened to me!'"
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In Her Bubble
When talking about her day-to-day life with the disease, Christina told Good Morning America in March 2024, "I live kind of in hell."
"But I might get to a place where I function a little bit better," she added. "Right now, I'm isolating, and that's kind of how I'm dealing with it—by not going anywhere because I don't want to do it. It's hard."
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The Sweetest Support
Christina credited her Sweetest Thing costar Selma Blair—who was diagnosed with MS in 2018—for urging her to get tested for the disease.
"She said, 'You need to get checked for MS,'" Christina recalled during her GMA interview. "If not for her, it could've been way worse."
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Friendship Never Dies
Christina confirmed that Dead to Me will likely be her last onscreen credit, telling Vanity Fair in May 2023, "I can’t even imagine going to set right now."
"I’m probably not going to work on-camera again, but I'm so glad that I went out with someone who is by far the greatest actress I’ve ever worked with in my entire life," she said of costar Linda Cardellini, "if not the greatest human I’ve ever known.
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