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Topics: Christina Applegate, Health, Celebrity
Stefania Sarrubba
Topics: Christina Applegate, Health, Celebrity
Christina Applegate has opened up about the one task she finds difficult following her multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis as she admits she sometimes 'lies in bed screaming' from the pain.
The Dead to Me actor opened up about the condition on a recent episode of her MesSy podcast, which she co-hosts with Sopranos actor Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who also lives with MS.
MS is an autoimmune disease which affects the spinal cord and the brain, causing a number of symptoms, including balance and vision problems, tiredness and numbness in different parts of the body. There is currently no cure for MS, but treatment can help manage the symptoms.
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Speaking on living with MS, Applegate, who received her diagnosis in 2021, explained she has trouble holding everyday objects in her hands due to the condition.
“I can’t even pick up my phone sometimes, because now it’s traveled into my hands,” she said on the podcast episode released on 5 November.
“So I’ll try to go get my phone, or get my remote to turn on the TV [and] sometimes, I can’t even hold them. I can’t open bottles now.”
Applegate and Sigler interviewed Rory Kandel, the founder of Rory’s Bakehouse, who was also recently diagnosed with MS.
Kandel said her symptoms 'manifest in pain' that she likened to having 'knives in your spine'.
"Do you feel like that?” she asked the hosts, to which Applegate responded: “Every single day of my life.”
Weighing in on how those living with MS can appear healthy to observers, Applegate described it as 'the beauty of the invisible disease'.
Later in the episode, the Married… with Children star said she lays in bed ‘all the time’ when the pain is extremely unmanageable.
“I mean, I worked for almost 50 years, so I’m kind of okay with it. But if I put my feet on the ground and they’re hurting like extraordinarily bad to the touch, I was like, ‘Yep. Gonna get back in my bed and pee in my diaper because I don’t feel like walking all the way to the damn bathroom’,” she said.
“I actually don’t lay here and pee in my diaper. That’s just a joke,” she added. “But it’s so freaking painful and so hard and so awkward.”
Applegate’s most recent role was that of Jen Harding on Netflix’s Dead To Me, which she also executive produced.
The star, who received three Emmy nods and one Golden Globe nomination for her performance, previously said this is likely to be her final acting role.
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.