‘Living in hell’: Christina Applegate’s heart-breaking confession
Source: X/Good Morning America
Actor Christina Applegate has opened up about her fight with multiple sclerosis, revealing she is living “kind of in hell”.
The US actress, best known for her roles in Anchorman and Netflix’s Dead To Me, has given her first on-camera sit-down interview since revealing her 2021 diagnosis with the debilitating disease.
“I live kind of in hell,” 52-year-old Applegate told host Robin Roberts in a clip of the interview teased on Good Morning America on Monday (US time).
“I’m not out a lot, so this is a little difficult, just for my system. But of course, the support is wonderful and I’m really grateful.”
Applegate used her appearance to promote MeSsy, a podcast she is making with fellow actress and Sopranos star Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who was diagnosed with MS at the age of 20.
It also follows her surprise appearance at the Emmy Awards in January. Applegate received a standing ovation after walking on to stage with the aid of cane.
“You’re totally shaming me with disability by standing up, but it’s fine,” she joked at the time.
But she has also admitted that “kind of blacked out” in that moment.
“People said, ‘Oh, you were so funny,’ and I’m like, I don’t even know what I said. I don’t know what I was doing. I got so freaked out that I didn’t even know what was happening anymore,” she said.
But, she said, she “felt really beloved, and it was a beautiful thing”.
In May last year, Applegate told Vanity Fair that she was unlikely to appear on camera again, following her diagnosis with the autoimmune disease.
“I’m probably not going to work on-camera again, but I’m so glad that I went out with someone who is by far the greatest actress I’ve ever worked with in my entire life, if not the greatest human I’ve ever known,” Applegate said of her Dead to Me co-star Linda Cardellini.
“I can do voiceover stuff because I have to support my family and keep my brain working,” she said.
The star, who made her name in the 1980s TV hit Married … with Children, has previously revealed she was diagnosed with MS just as she was about to start filming the third season of Dead to Me.
She and the show’s cast and crew took a five-month break while she sought treatment
“There was the sense of, ‘Well, let’s get her some medicine so she can get better’,” Applegate said.
“There is no better. But it was good for me. I needed to process my loss of my life, my loss of that part of me. So I needed that time.”
MS is an autoimmune condition that disrupts communication between the brain and the body. It is treatable but there is no cure – and its cause remains unknown.
Applegate first shared her diagnosis in 2021 through social media and has provided regular updates since.
Last week, she posted a picture of herself leaning on a cane to celebrate reaching 100,000 followers on Instagram. Describing herself as “a lady with a cool cane”, she thanked fans “from the bottom of my heart”.