Christina Applegate thought she understood the illness that had upended her life. Since revealing her multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2021, the actress has spoken openly about pain, exhaustion and losing the ability to move around as she once did.
However, a hospital stay intended to treat what she believed was another MS flare-up reportedly delivered a devastating reversal.
Applegate is now confronting a frightening medical mystery, with worsening symptoms and no clear explanation for what is happening.
Christina Applegate’s Hospital Stay Left Her Almost Unable To Move
Christina Applegate was reportedly rushed to a Los Angeles-area hospital at the end of March, believing an MS flare-up had become unbearable.
A source who had known the “Anchorman” actress for nearly two decades told the Daily Mail she was exhausted and “almost unable to move, basically immobile.”
It was during that hospital ordeal, the source revealed, that Applegate learned she had been misdiagnosed.
She reportedly spent four agonizing months in the hospital, with friends and family visiting “every day,” before being discharged on August 3.
Applegate had entered expecting doctors to manage the flare-up through corticosteroids, plasma and physical therapy. Instead, the treatment plan ended without the certainty she had hoped for.
“She went in with a game plan that they were going to manage this, and she came out with less answers, totally unsure,” the insider explained.
The source described Applegate’s condition as continuing to deteriorate, even after the diagnosis changed. “She’s living with this 24/7, she’s getting worse, and now she doesn’t even have a name for it. It’s horrific,” the insider said, adding, “She is spiraling. She isn’t doing well at all.”
Applegate Says The Diagnosis Has Put Her Back At Square One
Christina Applegate initially kept the medical revelation private, telling only close friends, according to the source.
The news also struck at a part of her public identity: she and fellow actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler have used their podcast, “MeSsy,” to speak candidly about living with MS and support others facing the disease.
“There was fear there, because MS has become a big part of her persona. And now MS is not what she’s got,” the source noted.
Applegate eventually disclosed the misdiagnosis on the podcast, admitting she felt she had let listeners down.
“It’s weird because I feel like I let everybody down,” she said per The Blast, adding, “I’m back at square one.”
Christina Applegate Avoids Online Theories As Doctors Search For Answers
Applegate is reportedly facing another round of investigations, including blood tests, MRIs, and appointments with additional specialists.
On a recent episode of the “MeSsy,” podcast, Dr. Marwa Kaisey, an associate professor in Cedars-Sinai’s neurology department, explained that MS can be difficult to diagnose because there is no single test that confirms or rules it out.
“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,” Kaisey said, describing misdiagnosis as “fairly common.”
As the medical search continues, Applegate is reportedly avoiding social media speculation about what might be wrong.
A source said she anticipated people blaming vaccines, advising her to eat differently or promoting homeopathic remedies.
“Whatever people come up with, don’t you think she has already thought about this?” the source said. “She’s been living this 24/7/365. She’s been over it all.”
More From The Blast
Applegate Drew Criticism From Megyn Kelly
After the update, Megyn Kelly publicly questioned Christina Applegate’s years of speaking about multiple sclerosis during a discussion with hosts of the political podcast “Ruthless.”
According to The Blast, Kelly called the former actress someone many people associated with MS, saying, “Christina Applegate is really the person I think most people, at least famous people, associate with this disease because she was one of the first to come out and say she had it.”
Kelly then took issue with Applegate’s public advocacy and podcast, saying: “The woman who’s made like every public statement about health for the past several years all about her MS… has now come out to tell us all she doesn’t actually have it. This has all been a wild goose chase.”
She also said Applegate was sad about the misdiagnosis because “she no longer gets to be the face of this disease.”
Christina Applegate’s Former Co-Star Described Supporting Her Through Illness
Months before the public dispute, “Married… With Children” actor David Faustino had spoken about supporting Applegate as she dealt with the illness she then understood to be MS.
In a June chat with Us Weekly, Faustino, who played Applegate’s younger brother Bud Bundy, said he had known her since they were teenagers and found it hard to understand what she was going through.
“It’s extremely difficult for me to understand having a debilitating disease,” Faustino told the magazine, adding, “I can’t. I don’t know what that’s like. I can only go from her experience and what she’s told me.”
He said the condition had been “a real blow,” but admired how Applegate continued to meet it.
“It’s been very hard for her, but she does keep her humor,” he said, adding that her dry, sarcastic wit had not changed.
