Christina Applegate announced Tuesday that she was misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis, more than five years after announcing she had been told she had the chronic condition.
Applegate, 54, shared the news in a double episode of her podcast MeSsy, where she and co-host Jamie-Lynn Sigler discuss life with multiple sclerosis. Applegate had taken a break from the podcast in recent weeks. She said Tuesday she had taken that time to process the new information.
Applegate said that “all of a sudden, a few years ago,” her doctor wanted to take her off an infusion treatment and see how her B cells reacted. The cell count didn’t increase or decrease after the treatment stopped, which began “kind of a study into my diagnosis,” Applegate said. Eventually, her doctor had surprising news: Applegate had never had multiple sclerosis at all.
“She came into my room and said, ‘Congratulations, you don’t have MS,’ ” Applegate said. “I was, like, not happy at all. Everybody else was so happy.”
Multiple sclerosis, or MS, is a disease where the body’s immune system attacks the central nervous system. Symptoms vary from person to person, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and there are multiple types of the disease. The condition has no known cause, and its progression is impossible to predict.
Dr. Marwa Kaisey, an associate professor at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center department of neurology, said on the podcast that almost one in five people who have been told they have multiple sclerosis “didn’t actually have it.” Misdiagnoses with the condition are “fairly common,” she said, because there is no one test for it.
Applegate said at the time of her initial diagnosis, she underwent tests including a spinal tap and MRIs. Scans showed lesions on her brain, she said.
Applegate said that she continues to have debilitating symptoms that affect her daily life and mobility.
“You don’t get misdiagnosed and then all of the sudden I’m better,” Applegate said. “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?”
The investigation will begin next week, she said.
Applegate has previously described living with symptoms including numbness, an off-balance feeling, and a tingling sensation in the limbs. She said in a 2022 interview with The New York Times that she “can’t walk without a cane.”
In the same interview, she said she used a wheelchair during filming of the Netflix hit “Dead To Me,” and the show’s script was adjusted to accommodate her symptoms. In 2023, Applegate said her symptoms might lead to her giving up acting on camera. She said Tuesday that she has physical therapy three times a week.
After she was officially diagnosed with the disease, she became an outspoken advocate for MS. On Tuesday, she said the misdiagnosis made her feel “like I let everybody down.”
“It’s very unnerving and it’s really confusing for me,” Applegate said.
