Christina Applegate cries revealing doctors misdiagnosed her with multiple sclerosis: ‘Something else is going on’

Joey NolfiTue, October 20, 2026 at 12:59 PM UTC

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Christina ApplegateCredit: Matt Winkelmeyer/GettyKey Points -

Christina Applegate says she was misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021.

The actress has long spoken about her treatment and life with the condition, though she revealed that doctors recently told her she doesn’t have MS.

Applegate cried on her MeSsy podcast with Jamie-Lynn Sigler over the news.

Christina Applegate got emotional over the latest update in her ongoing health journey.

Though the Dead to Me star was initially diagnosed in 2021 with the immune disorder that causes a breakdown of the body’s nerve sheaths, the 54-year-old revealed on the latest episode of her MeSsy podcast (with actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who has MS) that doctors initially misdiagnosed her five years ago.

Applegate broke down in tears as she discussed a recent medical appointment where she was evaluated with “new technology that had come out” — the results of which led her down a disappointing path.

“This may come as great news, but, to me, it comes as I’m back at square one,” the star explained, adding that her doctor “came into my room and she said, ‘Congratulations! You don’t have MS.’”

Applegate said she was “not happy at all” over the news, but that those around here were thrilled by the development.

“You don’t get misdiagnosed, and then all of a sudden I’m better. I haven’t gotten better,” she said. “I’ve gotten worse, in some ways. I’m back at square one. I don’t know what’s going on with me. That’s going to be an online investigation my doctors are going to get into to find out what’s been happening since 2021. Why did this happen? I have every symptom of someone with MS. Every single one. We both know that there are many things that mirror MS. Many different things.”

Sigler, who starred on The Sopranos series and was diagnosed with MS in 2001, remarked that “the labeling of things and how attached we become to them for so many reasons” can impact recovery “because it feels like there’s a roadmap, at least, that you have for this.”

Applegate then said she’s found out that “there’s a pretty damn high number of misdiagnoses with MS,” and that she feels “something else is going on, from the totally benign to something else that’s kind of intense that you need to get treated for.”

The Emmy winner, who released her memoir, You With the Sad Eyes, in March, added that she feels like she “let everybody down” by becoming a vocal public advocate for MS treatment and visibility, though Sigler reassured her that everything the actress did to help people wasn’t in vain.

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“Everything that I was doing, it’s like I had a reason. I had a f---ing reason as to why my day sucked every day, and now I don’t have a reason and it’s very unnerving and it’s really confusing for me,” Applegate continued. “I’m just in a state of shock right now. I’m still in shock, and I’m sitting here having slept all day yesterday feeling like absolute crap because of the heat, my legs aren’t working, all the same stuff is happening to me, yet I have this thing: Well, you don’t have that.”

Later in the episode, a doctor who specializes in neurology joined the actresses to discuss the medical industry’s frequent misdiagnosing of MS.

Dr. Marwa Kaisey of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s neurology department said that misdiagnosing is “fairly common,” informing the stars that there’s not “one single test for MS” that can definitively prove the disease.

Christina Applegate at 2023 Critics Choice AwardsCredit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

“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,” Dr. Kaisey said.

Applegate again lamented the misdiagnosis, telling Sigler that she’s “gone through a great depression because of it” and that she “lost everything,” including her acting career.

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“I’m sorry. What do you say to someone who’s been living with this for six years?” Applegate asked. “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.”

Listen to Applegate discuss her ongoing health struggle in the podcast episode above.

on Entertainment Weekly

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