Christina Applegate has revealed she was misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) and feels like she is “back at square one”.
The Anchorman and Dead To Me actress, 54, announced in August 2021 that she was diagnosed with the autoimmune condition in which the immune system mistakes the body for a foreign substance and attacks it.
Applegate said she was in a “state of shock” as she tearfully shared the news on her podcast, MeSsY, which she co-hosts with The Sopranos star Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who has MS.
Christina Applegate (Yui Mok/PA)
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The podcast has been a platform for the pair to discuss their journeys living with the condition.
She said: “This may come as great news, but to me, I’m back at square one.
“It’s hard to say that (my doctor) came into my room and she said, ‘Congratulations, you don’t have MS.’ I was not happy at all.
“You don’t get misdiagnosed and then all of a sudden I’m better. I haven’t gotten better. If anything, I’ve gotten worse in some ways.
“I’m back at square one that I don’t know what’s going on with me.”
Applegate said it is common to get an MS misdiagnosis, adding that she had “every symptom” of someone who has the condition.
“It’s clear now that they’re finding something different, that something else is going on,” she said.
Christina Applegate attending the UK premiere of Anchorman 2 (Ian West/PA)
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Applegate was filming the third and final series of Dead To Me when she opened up about her diagnosis, and said at the time that the role was likely to be her last.
She has since become a vocal advocate for the MS community and said that she feels like she has let “everybody down” after becoming a ‘poster child’ for the condition.
She added: “Everything that I was doing I had a reason.
“I had a f****** reason as to why my day sucked every day, and now I don’t have a reason. And it’s very unnerving and it’s really confusing for me.”
She later said in part two of the podcast episode that she “lost everything” following her diagnosis, and that it “stopped my life”.
“I’ve gone through great depression because of it,” she said.
Christina Applegate arrives at the premiere for Over Her Dead Body at the Arclight Theatre, Los Angeles (Ian West/PA)
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“I lost everything. I lost my job.
“I still have to use wheelchairs when I go to the doctor’s offices. I can’t walk from the car to the room. Nothing magical happened when she said ‘you don’t have MS’. Nothing magical happened.
“I guess I felt comfort in having a name. I felt comfort in having an answer and a community.”
Applegate is also known for starring in Bad Moms, The Sweetest Thing and Married With Children.