After becoming a prominent advocate for multiple sclerosis awareness and chronicling her struggles in an emotional memoir, Christina Applegate has revealed that she was misdiagnosed with the debilitating autoimmune condition MS. While on paper it sounds like the best call a patient could get, the painful reality of misdiagnosis is that it’s anything but.
The Emmy-winning actor has revealed on her MeSsy podcast - which she co-hosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who was diagnosed with MS in 2016 - that she was wrongly told she had MS. Recalling the moment her doctor revealed that she had been misdiagnosed with the condition, Applegate shared, ‘She came into my room and said "Congratulations - you don't have MS." I was not happy at all. You don't get misdiagnosed, and all of a sudden I'm better. I haven't gotten better. If anything, I've gotten worse in some ways.’
Explaining that she still uses ‘wheelchairs when I go to the doctors office’ and ‘can’t walk from the car to the room,’ the Married… With Children star continued, ‘I’m still in this. Nothing magical happened when she said “You don’t have MS.” Nothing magical happened.’
Multiple sclerosis is a complex autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, which sees the immune system mistakenly attack the myelin, part of the central nervous system that serves as a protective coating for the nerves. This inhibits the brain and the body from sharing information, resulting in symptoms including numbness, memory issues, fatigue, mobility issues, and sometimes vision loss.
Applegate was first diagnosed with MS back in 2021, after an MRI revealed dozens of lesions on her brain. Saying she had ‘every symptom of someone with MS,’ the diagnosis made complete sense for Applegate. It also spelt the end of her career: after wrapping up on the TV show Dead to Me in 2023, she retired from acting.
However, Applegate’s MS diagnosis was called into questions a few years ago, when doctors began re-examining things after cell testing produced unusual results. Saying confirmation of her misdiagnosis has left her ‘back at square one,’ Applegate emotionally revealed, ‘It’s weird because I feel like I let everybody down. It’s this weird feeling of I became this poster child for MS. All that I did, everything that I was doing, I had a f*cking reason as to why my day sucked every day. And now I don’t have a reason. It’s very unnerving, and it’s really confusing for me.’
‘I guess I felt comfort in having a name,’ she continued. ‘I felt comfort in having an answer and a community.’
The heartbreaking reality is that Applegate’s story is far from unique. Misdiagnosis is a rising trend in the world of medicine - with MS being one of the conditions placing patients most at risk. A 2024 Swiss-led study found ‘high-level evidence for high proportions of misdiagnosis and underdiagnosis of MS,’ including a 15% misdiagnosis rate in the cases examined.
So, why is MS so commonly misdiagnosed?
Joining Applegate and Sigler on their podcast, Dr Marwa Kaisey, a neurologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said misdiagnosis is 'fairly common' due to difficulties with diagnostic testing. She explained ‘We don't have one single test for MS. It's not like we having something like a pregnancy test that says "Yes, you have it, no, you don't." It's a list of criteria. Some of those criteria are still a little but subjective, and those criteria change every seven or so years, and so you really have to stay on top of the latest. There's room for error there.’
Common MS symptoms such as numbness, tingling, fatigue, and brain fog can also overlap with many other conditions. ‘To distinguish MS from its mimics can be challenging, and doctors, even with the best intentions, with the deepest looks at a case, can sometimes still get it wrong,’ explained Kaisey.
While society often paints misdiagnosis as a cause for celebration, that isn’t the case for thousands of patients living through this experience. Dr Michael Kornberg, associate professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told the BBC that a diagnosis can ‘become part of your identity. To live with that for five years and then to be given a different diagnosis is really unsettling.’
It was a sentiment recognized by many people living with chronic illness, who took to X (formerly Twitter) to share their support for Applegate and others experiencing medical misdiagnoses.
Describing Applegate’s doctor congratulating her as being ‘an abled perspective on chronic illness,’ one X user wrote, ‘The problem isn’t the diagnosis, the problem is what’s happening in someone’s body. You don’t have the illness they know is serious, so that must be good news, right? But at the same time, the things that happen in your body are still serious, but now without any leads for treatment.’
Others reflected on their own experiences, with one sharing, ‘The first diagnosis I was given was “likely MS.” After a year they said it wasn’t MS, but they didn’t know what “it” was. It took another seven years to get diagnosed. Christina Applegate is going through what so many of us go through. It’s not a relief. It’s exhausting.’
Echoing a concerningly similar story, another added, ‘My spine problem was misdiagnosed for seven years and by the time it was correctly diagnosed, the damage was done. Misdiagnosis isn’t a “relief” as the news (and her doctor) framed it. It’s crushing, especially when you still don’t have answers all those years later. I truly feel sorry for her.’
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Charlotte Roberts is a writer at Grazia UK. She spends her days covering everything celebrity, culture, and entertainment.