Christina Applegate has opened up about her experience living with MS (multiple sclerosis), saying that she “lies in bed screaming” because of the pain.
The Married… With Children actor, 52, was diagnosed with the chronic nervous system disorder in 2021, though had experienced symptoms for years before this.
She spoke about her condition on the latest episode of the MesSy podcast, which she hosts alongside Sopranos actor Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who also lives with MS.
“I lay in bed screaming,” Applegate said. “Jamie and I have different — everybody has different ways of it showing up. I lay in bed screaming. Like, the sharp pains, the ache, that squeezing.”
On the NHS website, MS is described as “a condition that affects the brain and spinal cord. It cannot currently be cured, but treatment can often help manage it.”
Symptoms can include extreme tiredness, vision problems, numbness in parts of the body, being off-balance or dizzy, muscle cramps and spasms, urination issues, memory problems, and sexual dysfunction.
On the podcast, Sigler and Applegate interviewed Rory Kandel, the founder of California bakery Rory’s Bakehouse, who also has MS.
Kandel noted that her symptoms typically “manifest in pain” that is comprable to “knives in your spine”, and she is sometimes unable to move around as a result.
“Do you feel like that?” she asked the hosts, prompting Applegate to respond: “Every single day of my life.”
“I can’t even pick up my phone sometimes, because now it’s traveled into my hands,” she said. “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.”
Noting that those living with MS sometimes appear healthy to observers, Applegate described it as “the beauty of the invisible disease”.
“Jamie knows that I just lay in bed all the time,” she said later in the episode. “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.’”
“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.”
