Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler are opening up about their lives since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in a way they never have before. In an intimate sit-down with Good Morning America‘s Robin Roberts, Applegate, 52, and Sigler, 42, reflected on the bond they’ve developed over the incurable disease, with which Applegate was diagnosed in 2021, and Sigler was diagnosed in 2001.
Applegate first went public with her diagnosis in August 2021. The then-49-year-old actress shared the news on Twitter, writing, “Hi friends. A few months ago I was diagnosed with MS. It’s been a strange journey. But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition. It’s been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going. Unless some a**hole blocks it.”
After coming forward about her MS, Applegate — who began in the entertainment industry as a baby — was met with an outpouring of support, including from her The Sweetest Thing co-star, Selma Blair, who was also diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2018, as well as Josh Gad, Sean Maguire and many others.
As Applegate explains to Roberts, her MS diagnosis was discovered after she was unable to walk on her own while filming the final season of her hit Netflix show, Dead to Me.
“My symptoms had started in the early part of 2021, and it was, like, literally just tingling on my toes,” Applegate recalls. “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.”
Applegate credits Blair with urging her to get tested for the disease. “She goes, ‘You need to be checked for MS,’ and I said, ‘No,’ I said, “Really? The odds? The two of us from the same movie? Come on, that’s not gonna be — that doesn’t happen,'” Applegate shares, adding of Blair, “She knew. If not for her, it could have been way worse.”
It wasn’t the first time Applegate, who is mom to 13-year-old daughter Sadie with husband Martyn LeNoble, has battled a health issue. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, and had a double mastectomy later that same year. Applegate’s foundation, Right Action for Women, offers free MRIs for high-risk women.
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