No MS, Still Sick: Christina Applegate’s Unexpected Update
Five years after going public with her diagnosis, the actress says her doctor told her she never had multiple sclerosis, and her symptoms have not gone anywhere.
Five years after announcing she had multiple sclerosis, Christina Applegate says her doctor has told her she never had it. The Christina Applegate MS misdiagnosis came to light on Tuesday, October 20, in a double episode of her podcast, MeSsy, which she co-hosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler.
The news is not the happy ending it might sound like. Applegate, now 54, says her symptoms remain, and that she is back at square one with no explanation for them.
Here is what she shared, how the original diagnosis happened, and what comes next.
What Christina Applegate Said About Her MS Diagnosis
MeSsy centers on life with MS. Applegate had stepped away from the show for a few weeks before the episode, and she said she used that time to process what she had been told.
According to Applegate, the doctor eventually came into her room and said, “Congratulations, you don’t have MS.” She was not happy at all, while everyone around her was. The news left her confused about what, exactly, has been keeping her from good health.
How the MS Misdiagnosis Came to Light
The discovery grew out of a treatment decision. A few years ago, Applegate’s doctor wanted to take her off an infusion treatment and watch how her B cells responded. Her cell count neither rose nor fell once the treatment stopped. That result set off what she described as a kind of study into her diagnosis.
The original diagnosis, by her account, rested on real testing:
- A spinal tap
- MRIs that showed lesions on her brain
Is Multiple Sclerosis Misdiagnosis Common?
On the podcast, Dr. Marwa Kaisey, an associate professor in the neurology department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, put the problem in perspective. Almost one in five people who are told they have multiple sclerosis do not actually have it.
Her explanation is simple. Misdiagnosis is fairly common because no single test confirms the disease.
Her Symptoms Are Still Real
A misdiagnosis does not mean the symptoms stop. Applegate says she still has debilitating symptoms that affect her daily life and her mobility, and a misdiagnosis does not make a person suddenly better. If anything, she said, she has gotten worse.
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She describes herself as back at square one. She has had no explanation for what has been happening to her since 2021. Her doctors will begin an investigation next week into what has caused her symptoms. She did not describe what that investigation involves, and no replacement diagnosis has been announced. She also said she does physical therapy three times a week.
The Weight of Being an Advocate
After her diagnosis, Applegate became an outspoken voice for people living with MS. On the podcast she said the misdiagnosis made her feel like she had let everybody down. She called the situation unnerving and confusing.
A Timeline of Applegate’s MS Journey
Those earlier moments now read differently in light of this week’s news. Here is how the story unfolded.
- August 2021: At age 49, Applegate announced on Twitter that she had been diagnosed with MS a few months earlier. She called it a tough road and asked for privacy.
- During the final season of Dead to Me: She was working on the Netflix series when the diagnosis came, after she could no longer walk on her own while filming.
- The push from Selma Blair: Her Sweetest Thing co-star, who was diagnosed with MS in 2018, urged her to get checked. Applegate’s first response was to dismiss the idea, given how unlikely it seemed that two women from the same film would both have the disease. She has said that without Blair, things could have been far worse.
- 2022: In an interview with The New York Times, she said she could not walk without a cane, and that she used a wheelchair while filming Dead to Me, with the script adjusted to accommodate her symptoms. She received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 14 of that year.
- 2023: She said her symptoms might lead her to give up acting on camera.
- March 19, 2024: MeSsy premiered, built around conversations between Applegate and Sigler, who has also spoken publicly about her own MS.
- March 2025: Applegate said on the podcast that she had been in the hospital upwards of thirty times since her diagnosis.
Applegate has also said she believed she had lived with MS for years before the diagnosis, pointing to possible symptoms during the first season of Dead to Me. She has recalled being told she had about thirty lesions on her brain. Those accounts predate this week’s announcement.
Her Health History Before 2021
Her medical story did not begin with MS. Applegate had a bilateral mastectomy in 2008 after breast cancer, and in 2017 she disclosed that she had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed. She wrote about her medical experiences in her memoir, You With the Sad Eyes. Her foundation, Right Action for Women, offers free MRIs to high-risk women.
Where Things Stand Now
Applegate says her doctor told her she does not have MS, that her symptoms remain and have worsened, and that her doctors will begin investigating the cause next week. That is the whole picture for now: a diagnosis taken away, no answer to replace it, and a public figure saying plainly that she does not know what is wrong.
“A misdiagnosis does not make a person suddenly better.”
Pull quote suggestion above.
If you want to follow what happens next, listen to MeSsy, where Applegate has been sharing the story herself. And if this made you think about your own diagnosis or someone you love, share the article and tell me in the comments what you took from it.
