Christina Applegate got emotional as she detailed her frustrations and fears over a recent multiple sclerosis (MS) flare-up.
During the Tuesday, January 6, episode of their “MeSsy” podcast, Applegate, 54, and cohost Jamie-Lynn Sigler read a letter from a fan named Steven, who said he suffers from myasthenia gravis (MG), an autoimmune disease that causes weakness in voluntary muscles.
“[MG] has, in the past seven years, taken my soul piece by piece, day by day, hour by hour,” Steven wrote. “While I’m beaten down, I’m not giving up, exploring new treatments and in the beginning stage of a CAR-T clinical trial that shows much promise. I’d love to trade my MG in for, say, dandruff or an ingrown toenail, if at all possible. Would love if you would consider doing an episode on myasthenia gravis patients or another rare syndrome without much public awareness. Anyway, thanks again for all the wonderful episodes. Truly love each and every one of you.”
After reading Steven’s letter, Applegate said she was getting emotional while thinking about Steven’s words and how relatable they are to so many people.
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“I’m reading it and I’m trying not to start being a crybaby again with every single thing that I’m reading, because I’m getting very emotional because I’m really touched by the fact that we’re all sitting in that space,” she told Sigler, 44.
Applegate then recalled a recent MS flare-up that had left her feeling like her own soul was being taken, as Steven described.
“Like yesterday, I was walking, kind of OK. … Today, I was falling over, stumbling. I just feel like, is it taking me? Is it taking me day by day, piece by piece?” she said. “I can’t even read s*** like this without getting super highly triggered.”
Applegate revealed in August 2021 that she had been diagnosed with MS.
“My symptoms had started in the early part of 2021, and it was literally just tingling on my toes,” she said in an ABC News interview, revealing that her legs sometimes gave out while filming the first season of Netflix’s Dead to Me. “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.”
In a post on X at the time, Applegate wrote, “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.”
Since announcing her diagnosis, Applegate has been candid about her journey with MS, often sharing updates via social media and her podcast with Sigler, which launched in 2024. (Sigler was diagnosed with MS in 2002 but kept her health battle a secret until 2016.)
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Applegate has also shared the impact that her MS diagnosis has had on her family, which includes husband Martyn LeNoble and their daughter, Sadie, 15.
“I see her look at me when I’m in bed and can’t quite move, or I wanna go say goodnight to her in her room, but I can’t quite get down the hallway for whatever reason that my legs aren’t working that day,” the Married … With Children alum said during an August podcast episode. “Right now, I can barely get to the bathroom, it’s just the worst, but that’s neither here nor there. It’s broken her.”
Applegate continued, “She didn’t know this. It was like losing the mom she had to this f***ing thing. And the more she’s gotten older now, I think the more it’s hurting her.”
