Christina Applegate was wrongly diagnosed with MS

Actress Applegate: "I'm at the beginning again"

For years, Christina Applegate, 54, assumed she had multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. Now the actress reports that the diagnosis was wrong. Their complaints, however, remain – for which the uncertainty is back.

After seven months of a health-related break, Applegate returned to her podcast »MeSsy« on Tuesday. In a two-part episode, she told in tears that a new technology had led to the correction of her diagnosis. Her doctor told her, “Congratulations, you don’t have MS.”

For Applegate, who starred on Anchorman and Bad Moms, among others, and once became known on the sitcom A Terribly Nice Family, this is not liberating news. “I’m at the beginning again,” she said. “A misdiagnosis does not mean that I am suddenly better.” In some ways, their condition has even deteriorated. Which disease causes their complaints, is still unclear.

In 2021, Applegate made their MS diagnosis public. After the end of her series »Dead to Me« the following year, she retired from acting – and plunged into the educational work about multiple sclerosis. Together with »Sopranos« actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler, she started »MeSsy« to talk about her experiences and raise awareness about the disease.

Now she is also shocked because she has become a public advocate for people with MS. “It’s strange because I feel like I’ve disappointed everyone,” Applegate said. She became the poster boy for MS. "I had a reason." I had a damn reason why my day was shit every day. And now I have no reason. And that totally confuses me.

Their limitations have not changed. During doctor visits, she still needed a wheelchair, the way from the car to the treatment room she could not go. “Nothing magical happened when she said, ‘You don’t have MS.’”