Christina Applegate opens up about the harsh realities of living with MS
Topics: Christina Applegate, Celebrity, Health
Rhiannon Ingle
Featured Image Credit: Good Morning America
Topics: Christina Applegate, Celebrity, Health
Christina Applegate has opened up about the harsh realities of living with multiple sclerosis (MS) in a new interview.
The 54-year-old Dead to Me actress was diagnosed with the chronic autoimmune condition, which affects the brain and spinal cord, in the summer of 2021 and has frequently used her platform to speak up about her health journey to help raise awareness on the condition.
Speaking to Good Morning America earlier this month, while promoting her newly-released memoir, With the Sad Eyes: A Memoir by Christina Applegate, she revealed that she has not yet accepted her MS diagnosis.
"It still sucks, Robin. It really does," she told co-anchor Robin Roberts. "I have so many friends who have MS. And we talk to each other constantly. And I don't have one that says, 'I'm great.'"
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"There is no great. There's a better day and a less sh*tty day," Applegate said. "This is a lifelong disease with no cure. Period."
When asked 'where she is with the grieving process' of living with MS, Applegate replied: "Where am I at with acceptance? Not at all. I hate it."
She then took the opportunity to credit her teenage daughter, Sadie, whom she shares with husband Martyn LeNoble, for supporting her through her health journey.
"I wake up every day and go, 'I'm Sadie's momma.' And that, to me, is why I'm still here," the Hollywood A-lister shared, adding that she wants 'visceral joy' for her daughter.
She also told Robyn that, on a scale of one to 10 regarding pain, she's constantly at an eight.
Elsewhere in the interview, Applegate also discussed her potential return to acting.
"I’d love to," she said of taking on more acting roles, adding with a laugh: "As long as I didn't have to get up really early and no one touches my face or my hair."
"I see her look at me when I’m in bed and can’t quite move, or I wanna go say goodnight to her in her room, but I can’t quite get down the hallway for whatever reason that my legs aren’t working that day," she shared.
"Right now I can barely get to the bathroom, it’s the worst, but that’s neither here nor there.
"It’s broken her."
Applegate then took the opportunity to reflect on what her life was like before her diagnosis, explaining that Sadie 'only' knew her as 'healthy, and a runner, and a Pelotoner and a dancer'.
"So then when this came about, 2021, she was like stoic about it," Applegate recalled. "She didn’t know this. It was like losing the mum she had to this f*cking thing. And the more she’s gotten older now, I think the more it’s hurting her."
Applegate also made sure to voice her appreciation for having Sadie by her side to support her through such periods.
"But you know what’s really beautiful? When we’re out, she knows I’m having such a hard time because I have such anxiety about being out. And she’s always got my arm," she praised.
"She’s always trying to help me through and help me with my cane and all this stuff. At home, she’s like, 'Can you please go down and make my food cause you’re the only one who can make it?'"