Actress Christina Applegate reveals she now spends most her time in bed, five years after Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis
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Dead to Me actress Christina Applegate has revealed she is now mostly bed-bound, five years after she got diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
The 54-year-old star has said she spends most of her days in bed now, due to the pain movement causes her because of the condition.
Speaking to People magazine before the release of her memoir, she said, however, that one thing she still tries to make sure she does is take her 15-year-old daughter, Sadie, to school. She aded that this is her “favourite thing to do”.
“It’s the only time we have together by ourselves,” she said. “I tell myself ‘just get her there safely and get home so you can get back into bed.’ And that’s what I do.”
MS is a condition that affects the brain and spinal cord. It cannot be cured, but treatment can often help manage it. Some of the most common symptoms include feeling extremely tired, problems with eyes or your vision such as blurred vision or eye pain, numbness or a tingling feeling in different parts of the body, feeling off balance, dizzy or clumsy, muscle cramps, spasms and stiffness and problems with memory or concentration. But, these health issues can also be signs of other conditions and people are urged to visit their GP if they are experiecing them.
Applegate was diagnosed with MS in 2021, and since then she’s launched her MeSsy podcast, which launched in March 2024, to speak more openly about her condition. She shared during a December 2024 episode of her podcast that she first started experiencing symptoms in 2019, but ignored them.
Referring to a time when she was filming the Dead to Me pilot, she said: “I remember falling that day . . . Hi, first sign of MS!” Applegate wasn’t diagnosed until the filming of the show’s third and final season.
Applegate has spoken previously about the impact of her condition on her daughter: “I see her look at me when I’m in bed and can’t quite move, or I want to go say goodnight to her in her room, but I can’t quite get down the hallway for whatever reason that my legs aren’t working that day . . . mummy can’t do all the things that she used to be able to do, and I see it in her eyes. I see it.”
MS is also not the only health issue that Applegate has faced. In 2008 she underwent a bilateral mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
The star has been acting since she was a child and gained fame for her part as Kelly in the 1987 hit sitcom Married With Children. In her new memoir, called You With The Sad Eyes, she writes about many aspects of her life, including growing up in Los Angeles and watching her mum, actress Nancy Priddy, struggle with heroin addiction and multiple abusive partners.
She said: “My life isn’t wrapped up with a bow. People’s lives, sorry for lack of a better term, f***ing suck sometimes. So I’m being as honest and raw as I possibly can. We all have come from somewhere, some places more painful than others, and it’s what you do with it, I guess. This is not an inspirational book, by any means. But it can inspire.”
Applegate still works in the entertainment industry, but now focuses mainly on her podcast and also does some voice work.
Her memoir, You With The Sad Eyes, will be released on Tuesday March 3. You can pre-order it on Amazon now.