Christina Applegate Says She Was Misdiagnosed With MS

Christina Applegate has told her podcast audience that she does not have multiple sclerosis (MS), the nervous system disease she publicly said she had in 2021.

Applegate returned to MeSsy, the podcast she co-founded with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, on Oct. 21, according to Variety. It was her first appearance in a seven-month break. Sigler was diagnosed with MS in 2001, and the show was started to share their experiences and raise awareness of the condition.

Applegate said new technology led doctors to find she had been misdiagnosed. She described the moment her doctor told her: "Congratulations, you don't have MS." Her reaction was not all relief. She said that, before the news, it could take her 10 minutes to move off her pillow, get out of bed and stand up. A walker now sits beside her bed.

Applegate retired from acting after the finale of Dead to Me in 2022. She has spent the years since on advocacy, and she said on the show that she will keep it up even though she no longer has the diagnosis herself. "I'm still your warrior, and I'm still going to speak out on your behalf forever and ever," she told Sigler, according to Variety.

She also said people in the MS community are still "my people." The podcast's first episode back, titled "Christina Is Back (Part 1)," was released on YouTube and other platforms. In it, the two hosts read listener emails and talk about life without a diagnosis and the challenges of parenting teenagers.

The news was covered by People, Page Six and The New York Times, which each reported the misdiagnosis from Oct. 20.

For listeners who have MS, or who care for someone who does, the episode is a first-hand account of what a diagnosis can mean day to day, and what it can mean to be told it was wrong. Applegate and Sigler have said the show is for that audience. Its next episodes will be the place to hear more.