Christina Applegate was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the summer of 2021 while working the third and final season of Netflix's Dead To Me.
The 53-year-old Anchorman star has been really open about health issues in order to help shine a light on MS by revealing that her symptoms dated back years before she actually knew what she was dealing with.
Now, MS can affect the brain and spinal cord, resulting in a wide range of potential symptoms including problems with vision, arm or leg movement, sensation or balance.
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And while being interviewed on SiriusXM's This Life of Mine with James Corden last year, Applegate discussed her experiences leading up to receiving the diagnosis and listed five 'weird symptoms' to look out for which included:
- Balance issues
- Speech issues
- Shaky hands
- Feeling weak at the knees (when walking etc)
- Numb toes
Applegate explained: "Things just started to get weirder and weirder, and before I knew it, we were about to start shooting the last season of Dead To Me and by this time I was like, 'You guys, I can't even walk up the steps to my trailer'."
This was one of the first warning signs, with the actor sent for an MRI scan to check out what the cause could be.
"[I] opened up my Zoom, and there he was, and he just looked at me, and he goes, 'I'm so sorry'," she said, before continuing: "I was like, 'What do you mean?' and he goes, 'Here's a picture of your brain. Sorry', and there's like 30 lesions all over my brain and I went, 'No, please don't tell me this. Please don't tell me this'.
"I had to call production. I said, 'You guys, it's f**king MS,' and they're like, 'OK, we're shutting down for the week'."
Applegate went on to add: "That was it, and then we were just trying to figure out how to film and stuff, and we did. I mean, we finished it. It took us a long time, but we finished it. But yeah, I remember that moment like it was yesterday."
Applegate previously recalled being able to 'brush off' the symptoms in January 2021, but just before she started shooting the third season of Dead To Me, she felt as though she had been 'hit by a truck and didn’t know what was going on'.
Speaking to Variety, she continued: "It was very scary for me, because this body that I had known was no longer mine.
"We had to kind of work around that until, finally, I had answers.
"I found that I had MS while we were shooting on a Monday. I went home, and the doctor said, 'I need to do this meeting with you'.
"I could feel that this Zoom was not going to be good news. It sucked, I’m not going to lie."
Following her diagnosis, production on Dead To Me shut down so she could receive treatment, but Applegate noted there was no getting 'better' for her.
There's currently no cure for MS, though treatments can help control the condition and ease symptoms.
"There was the sense of, ‘Well, let’s get her some medicine so she can get better'," Applegate said of the hiatus. "And there is no better. But it was good for me. I needed to process my loss of my life, my loss of that part of me. So I needed that time."
You can find more information about MS on the NHS, MS Society or MS Trust websites. Those in the US can visit the National Institutes of Health website.
Topics: Celebrity, Christina Applegate, Health
Rhiannon Ingle