A reversal delivered in the doctor's office
Applegate, 54, shared the news on MeSsy, the podcast she records with fellow actor Jamie-Lynn Sigler; the episode went up on YouTube on Tuesday. She described sitting in her physician's office when the doctor entered and told her she did not have multiple sclerosis. Rather than relief, Applegate said the moment brought no happiness, because her body had not changed.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6][S7][S8]
According to Applegate, she has matched every symptom associated with the disease, and her condition has not improved since the correction. She said she still needs a wheelchair to move between the car and the examination room at her doctor's office, and that nothing transformed when she was told the diagnosis was wrong.[S1][S5][S7]
Guilt, confusion and a lost explanation
Speaking through tears, Applegate said she feels as though she disappointed people who looked to her as a representative face of multiple sclerosis, a role she and Sigler had come to occupy. She explained that the diagnosis had given her a reason for each difficult day, and that losing it has left her unsettled and confused about what is happening to her body.[S1][S4][S6][S8]
The actor went public with a multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2021. In an interview with People magazine timed to her memoir, You With the Sad Eyes, she said the condition had largely kept her in bed. She stepped back from acting two years after that disclosure, finishing her work on the series Dead to Me.[S1]
A career on screens large and small
Applegate became widely known through the sitcom Married … with Children and later starred in Dead to Me. Her film credits include Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, and she also appeared on Friends. In 2002 she received an Emmy for outstanding guest acting in a comedy series.[S1]
