A little over three years ago, decorated actor Christina Applegate revealed that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at age 49. After triumphantly finishing the final season of her Netflix series Dead to Me, which hit the streaming service in 2022, Applegate said last year that she has no plans to act on screen again. Now, the actor has further detailed the progression of the autoimmune condition (in which the body mistakenly attacks the protective coating on nerve fibres), opening up about the, at times, excruciating chronic pain she copes with on MeSsy, her podcast with co-host Jamie-Lynn Sigler (The Sopranos), who has also received an MS diagnosis.
On the most recent episode of the podcast, the actors were joined by Rory's Bakehouse founder Rory Kandel, who was diagnosed in 2023. The three discussed the way the pain they live with since the onset of the illness and the way it impacts their daily lives.
"I lay in bed screaming — like, the sharp pains, the ache, that squeezing," Applegate explained. "I can't even pick up my phone sometimes because now it's travelled into my hands, so I'll, like, try to go get my phone or get my remote to turn on the TV or sometimes, I can't even hold them. I can't open bottles now."
Of her own pain, Kandel added, "It feels like I have knives in my stomach. I'll be laying in bed, and I wake up, and I physically can't turn from side to side."
The guest and both hosts agreed that, in their respective experiences, the pain associated with MS is particularly severe early in the day. "I put my feet on the ground and they're hurting, like, extraordinarily bad to the touch," Applegate said. "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," clarifying that she was joking, but "it's so freaking painful and so hard and so awkward."
If you've ever experienced pain, chronic or acute, you know how difficult it can be to even describe — let alone open up about — so it's heartening to see Applegate and Sigler being transparent, as well as platforming others coping with MS. As per John Hopkins Medicine, it's a very unpredictable disorder that affects people differently, resulting in only mild symptoms for some patients while others can lose the ability to walk, speak, write and see clearly as communication between the brain and other parts of the body is disrupted.
You can check out the full conversation between Applegate, Sigler and Kandel by listening to the latest MeSsy episode below.