Originally appeared on E! Online
Christina Applegate is getting candid about her MS journey.
The Married with Children alum, who has been open about her battle with multiple sclerosis (MS) over the years, detailed how it has impacted her bowels and even led to many trips to the hospital for answers.
“For three years, since I was diagnosed, I’ve been in the hospital upwards of 30 times from throwing up and diarrhea and pain,” Christina, 53, revealed on her and Jamie-Lynn Sigler ’s MesSy podcast March 19. “That is unimaginable, OK? They’ve done every test known to man on me, put so much radiation into my body from CT scans to everything else.”
Christina—who was diagnosed with the chronic, autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system, brain, and spinal cord in 2021—explained that she has finally connected her gastro issues to her illness after doctors ignored her previous concerns.
“And literally just in the last month, I have figured it out,” the Dead to Me star said. “Now, maybe this isn’t what’s happening, but I’m just going to tell you this. Talk to your doctor about motility issues, OK. Because one of the things with MS is that it slows down our organs, you know, not like completely, but there is a slowing of the function of your organs.”
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“I have noticed that—and I’m going to be really honest—if I have to poop, I puke,” she continued. “And when I puke, I get all the pain and then all the things happen.”
Christina encouraged listeners to talk with doctors about anything that occurs amid their illness, detailing how she is going to use that shared experience to advocate for herself and her reoccurring symptoms.
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association
So please ask your doctor about that,” she explained. “I’m going into my colonoscopy on Thursday and I’m going to have a conversation with the big guys, ‘I know you guys are saying that I’m crazy and I’m coming in here for no reason, but now I’m seeing a pattern.’”
“My neuro, God bless her, says that’s not an MS thing,” Christina noted. “So, I’m sorry, there’s got to be a correlation here, and I’m not a doctor. I’m not giving medical advice. I’m just saying, just think about that, OK? Because I’m in the middle of the same exact situation, and it f–king sucks, and it’s scary.”
Keeping it light, she then joked about how she really feels about this particular symptom.
“Have you puked and had diarrhea at the same time,” she said. “Because that’s my favorite part, that’s the sexiest.”
And while she emphasized that she is not a medical professional hoping to provide insight into MS sympoms, she did share one very important piece of advice that helps her in her time of need.
“Well always have a little trash can next to your toilet,” she explained. “Because you can do both without it being messy. I had one yesterday.”
Keep reading for more on what Christina has shared about her battle with MS…
Health Journey
Christina Applegate shared she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021.
“Hi friends. A few months ago I was diagnosed with MS,” she shared on her social media channels that August. “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.”
First Public Appearance
“Oh, by the way, I have a disease,” she joked during her November 2022 Hollywood Walk of Fame induction ceremony, her first public appearance since her MS diagnosis. “Did you not notice? I’m not even wearing shoes.”
Early Symptoms
Christina believes her MS journey actually began “six or seven years” before her 2021 diagnosis.
“I noticed, especially the first season [of Dead to Me], we’d be shooting and my leg would buckle,” Christina explained during a March 2024 interview on Good Morning America. “I really just put it off as being tired, or I’m dehydrated, or it’s the weather. Then nothing would happen for months, and I didn’t pay attention.”
By the time she was shooting the Netflix series’ third and final season, the actress said she was “being brought to set in a wheelchair.”
“I couldn’t move that far,” she recalled, “so I had to tell everybody because I needed help.”
Making Moves
The Dead to Me star captioned this photo of her cane collection amid her battle with MS: “Walking sticks are now part of my new normal.”
Strong Statement
Just Jokes
Healing Through Humor
“I make these jokes because if I don’t, I’ll suffocate,” Christina shared on a March 2024 episode on Armchair Expert, explaining why she often pokes fun at her condition. “I’ll be done.”
MS On Her Mind
“I have 30 lesions on my brain,” she said on the same podcast. “My biggest one is behind my right eye, so my right eye hurts a lot.”
Legions are caused by the immune system attacking the myelin sheath around nerves, according to the Multiple Sclerosis Trust.
Getting Candid
Christina hasn’t held back when it comes to sharing her journey.
“It sucks,” the Anchorman actress told late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel of her daily struggles with MS. “I’m not going to lie. I think anyone who has MS isn’t going to be like, ‘This is the best thing that ever happened to me!'”
In Her Bubble
When talking about her day-to-day life with the disease, Christina told Good Morning America in March 2024, “I live kind of in hell.”
“But I might get to a place where I function a little bit better,” she added. “Right now, I’m isolating, and that’s kind of how I’m dealing with it—by not going anywhere because I don’t want to do it. It’s hard.”
The Sweetest Support
Christina credited her Sweetest Thing costar Selma Blair—who was diagnosed with MS in 2018—for urging her to get tested for the disease.
“She said, ‘You need to get checked for MS,'” Christina recalled during her GMA interview. “If not for her, it could’ve been way worse.”
Friendship Never Dies
Christina confirmed that Dead to Me will likely be her last onscreen credit, telling Vanity Fair in May 2023, “I can’t even imagine going to set right now.”
“I’m probably not going to work on-camera again, but I’m so glad that I went out with someone who is by far the greatest actress I’ve ever worked with in my entire life,” she said of costar Linda Cardellini, “if not the greatest human I’ve ever known.
