Christina Applegate will continue to advocate for the multiple sclerosis community despite recently learning that she was misdiagnosed with the autoimmune disorder.
“You guys are my people,” Applegate, 54, said during the Tuesday, October 27, episode of her and Jamie Lynn Sigler’s “MeSsy” podcast. “That’s the one thing I wanted to say quickly is that even though I don’t have this disease, I have fallen in love with everyone that we know, our listeners and our friends that have MS.”
The Dead to Me alum continued, “And I’m still your warrior. And I’m still going to speak out on your behalf forever and ever. I still feel like part of this community. And no matter what, I love you.”
Sigler, 45, added that despite Applegate’s misdiagnosis, they plan to continue their podcast, which launched in March 2024.
“This is just about our lives and the messiness of life in general. It was never meant to be solely MS-focused,” the Sopranos alum explained.
Sigler was diagnosed with MS in 2002 when she was 20 years old, although she waited until 2016 to reveal the news. Meanwhile, Applegate publicly revealed her diagnosis in August 2021. After five years of documenting her journey and advocating for MS patients via the “MeSsy” podcast and other platforms, Applegate announced earlier this month that she had been incorrectly diagnosed with the disease.
“[My doctor] came into my room and said, ‘Congratulations, you don’t have MS,’” she recalled during the October 20 podcast episode. “I was, like, not happy at all. Everybody else was so happy.”
Applegate became emotional as she shared that she’s still dealing with symptoms that now don’t have an explanation.
“You don’t get misdiagnosed and then all of a sudden I’m better,” she explained. “I haven’t gotten better, Jamie! If anything, I’ve gotten worse. So I’m back at square one where I don’t know what’s going on with me. And that’s going to be an online investigation that my doctors are going to be getting into just to find out what has been going on since 2021, why did this happen?”
Applegate also reflected on going through a “great depression” after hearing the news.
“I lost everything. I lost my job. I lost — I’m sorry. What do you say to someone who’s been living with this for six years — God, I’m so sorry — because it stopped my life,” she said through tears. “I still have to use wheelchairs when I go to the doctor’s office. I can’t walk from the car to the room. I’m still in this. Nothing magical happened when she said, ‘You don’t have MS.’ Nothing magical happened.”
The actress continued, “It’s weird because I feel like I let everybody down. It’s this weird feeling because I became this — you and I, the poster children for MS. And everything I was doing. I had a reason. I had a f***ing 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 very confusing for me.”
