Christina Applegate Reveals She Was Misdiagnosed With Multiple Sclerosis

Christina Applegate has revealed that she was misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) and does not actually have the disease, despite experiencing debilitating symptoms since early 2021.

Applegate, 54, who publicly announced her MS diagnosis in the summer of 2021, shared the news during a recent episode of her podcast, "Messy," which she co-hosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who also has MS.

"She came into my room and said, 'Congratulations, you don't have MS,'" Applegate said tearfully on the podcast, describing the moment her doctor delivered the news. "I was, like, not happy at all. Everybody else was so happy."

She expressed confusion and distress, stating, "You don't get misdiagnosed and then all of a sudden I'm better. I haven't gotten better, Jamie! If anything, I've gotten worse. So I'm back at square one where I don't know what's going on with me."

Applegate explained that she has been dealing with significant health issues since 2021 and is now undergoing further medical investigation to determine the cause of her symptoms. She added that the misdiagnosis has led to a profound sense of depression and has impacted her life significantly, including her career.

"I lost everything. I lost my job," she shared, her voice breaking. "I'm sorry. What do you say to someone who's been living with this for six years - God, I'm so sorry - because it stopped my life."

Applegate, who has relied on a wheelchair and cane and has stepped away from her acting career, emphasized that her physical struggles persist. "I still have to use wheelchairs when I go to the doctor's office. I can't walk from the car to the room. I'm still in this. Nothing magical happened when she said, ‘You don't have MS.’ Nothing magical happened."

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease where the immune system attacks the protective myelin sheath covering nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms can include numbness, weakness, difficulty walking, vision changes, and fatigue.

Applegate had previously shared details of her battle with MS, including being confined to bed due to pain and undergoing numerous hospitalizations. In February, she told People that while pain often kept her in bed, she would make an effort to leave for her teenage daughter, Sadie. She also reflected on the exhaustion associated with the disease in her 2026 memoir, "You With The Sad Eyes."

"One of the worst side-effects of the illness is the exhaustion," Applegate wrote in an excerpt published by The Guardian in March. "It feels as though I've been on a three-day sleepless bender – and that's how I feel after a good night's sleep. Hence all the time I spend on and in bed, snuggled up against my heating pad."

She announced her initial MS diagnosis on social media in August 2021 and later posted a photo of her canes in 2022, stating that needing help with walking had become her "new normal."

During an episode of her podcast last year, Applegate revealed she had been hospitalized more than 30 times since her diagnosis, undergoing extensive medical testing. "They've done every test known to man on me, put so much radiation into my body from CT scans to everything else," she told Sigler.