Christina Applegate has revealed the tiny symptoms she experienced for years before learning she had multiple sclerosis – subtle warning signs that slowly crept into her life long before doctors finally diagnosed the disease.
The Dead to Me star, now 54, has spoken candidly in recent interviews about the early symptoms of MS that she brushed aside while continuing to work on one of Netflix’s biggest shows.
Filming and MS
In 2021, Applegate was diagnosed with the chronic neurological condition, a disease where – according to Johns Hopkins Medicine – the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue, leading to unpredictable symptoms that can vary significantly from person to person.
At the time of her diagnosis, Applegate was filming the third and final season of Dead to Me, something she later admitted became physically and emotionally overwhelming.
Speaking with the New York Times, Applegate said many people around her hoped treatment would quickly restore her health, though she understood that reality looked very different.
“There was the sense of, ‘Well, let’s get her some medicine so she can get better,’” she said.
“And there is no better.”
Physical changes
According to reports, production of the show shut down for five months while the star, who received a Primetime Emmy nomination for her role as Jen Hardin, started treatment.
“But it was good for me,” she told the NYT. “I needed to process my loss of my life, my loss of that part of me. So I needed that time.”
She also insisted on finishing the series out of loyalty to the people she worked with.
“I had an obligation to our story,” Applegate said.
‘Look at the cripple’
At one point, she acknowledged that viewers might focus heavily on the visible changes caused by her illness.
“If people hate it, if people love it, if all they can concentrate on is, ‘Ooh, look at the cripple,’ that’s not up to me,” she told the NYT.
“I’m sure that people are going to be, like, ‘I can’t get past it.’ Fine, don’t get past it, then. But hopefully people can get past it and just enjoy the ride and say goodbye to these two girls,” she said, referring to the show’s best friends, Jen and Judy, the latter played by Linda Cardellini.
Even while pushing through the physical toll of filming the black comedy, Applegate later realized the warning signs of MS had actually appeared years earlier – long before she ever received a diagnosis.
‘Tingling on my toes’
In another interview, Applegate revealed the very first sign of MS may have reared its ugly head as early as six or seven years before her diagnosis.
During a previous interview on Good Morning America (GMA) alongside actor Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who was diagnosed with MS while filming the third season of The Sopranos, Applegate reflected on how easy it was to dismiss the warning signs while filming the first season of Dead to Me.
“I probably had [MS] for six or seven years, I think,” Applegate said. “I noticed, especially the first season, 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.”
The Married with Children star continued: “Then nothing would happen for months, and I didn’t pay attention. But when it hit this hard, I had to pay attention.”
The actor became emotional while describing how quickly her condition worsened once the symptoms intensified in 2021.
“My symptoms had started in the early part of 2021, and it was, like, literally just tingling on my toes,” Applegate told co-anchor Robin Roberts.
“And 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.”
‘I’m used to it now’
As Applegate’s mobility rapidly declined during filming, she said the disease also brought relentless physical pain that continues to affect her daily life.
“They call it the invisible disease. It can be very lonely because it’s hard to explain to people,” Applegate said on GMA. “I’m in excruciating pain, but I’m just used to it now.”
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