Christina Applegate Opens Up About MS Misdiagnosis After 7 Months Away From Her Podcast

For years, the beloved star has spoken candidly about the toll her illness has taken and the community she found along the way. Now, a single conversation with her doctor has upended everything she thought she knew.

Christina Applegate has returned to her "MeSsy" podcast alongside co-host Jamie Lynn Sigler after months away, but the actress has come back with a shocking health update, years after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Christina Applegate attends the 29th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at Fairmont Century Plaza on February 26, 2023, in Los Angeles, California. | Source: Getty Images

On Tuesday, October 20, Applegate and Sigler dropped two back-to-back episodes of their podcast, where the pair speak candidly about their individual experiences with MS.

However, in her comeback episode, Applegate, 54, tearfully explained that her break from the podcast came after her doctor delivered some life-altering news — she does not, in fact, have MS.

"She came into my room and said, 'Congratulations, you don't have MS,'" Applegate recalled through tears. "I was, like, not happy at all. Everybody else was so happy."

Christina Applegate speaks speaks onstage during the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on January 15, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. | Source: Getty Images

Dr. Marwa Kaisey, associate professor with the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center department of neurology, joined Applegate and Sigler for the second episode of the podcast. She explained that MS misdiagnoses are "fairly common" because "we don't have one single test for MS."

She added, "It's not like we have something like a pregnancy test that says, 'Yes. You have it.' 'No. You don't.' It's a list of criteria." According to Kaisey, nearly 20 percent of those diagnosed with MS turn out not to have the disease.

"Almost one in five of these people who'd been told they had MS, some for decades, didn't actually have it. And a majority of them were on medication to treat their MS," she noted.

Applegate pointed out that learning she had been misdiagnosed did nothing to ease her debilitating symptoms. "You don't get misdiagnosed and then all of the sudden I'm better," she said. "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. And that's going to be an online investigation that my doctors are going to be getting into just to find out what has been going on since 2021, why did this happen?" she said.

Christina Applegate poses with her star during her Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony at Hollywood Walk Of Fame on November 14, 2022, in Los Angeles, California. | Source: Getty Images

In the second part of the podcast, Applegate was overcome with emotion once more, saying, "I've gone through a great depression because of it. But I lost everything. I lost my job. I lost — 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."

"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," she continued.

The retired actress admitted she has since been grappling with her place in the MS community, especially after building close bonds with others living with the condition.

"It's weird because I feel like I let everybody down," Applegate confessed. "It's this weird feeling because I became this — you and I, the poster children for MS. And everything I was doing."

Applegate said she is still in a "state of shock" over the misdiagnosis. The Emmy winner explained that her break from the podcast gave her time to "process" the news while she was also navigating "some health stuff."

In the end, Applegate summed up her health journey as "the same game with a different name."