Christina Applegate Reveals She Has Multiple Sclerosis

It's the latest health challenge for the Emmy-winning actor, who is also a breast cancer survivor

Christina Applegate
Presley Ann/Getty Images

Christina Applegate has announced that she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a few months ago, calling it "a tough road."

The Emmy-winning actor, 49, shared her diagnosis on Twitter late Monday, marking her latest health challenge after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 and undergoing a double mastectomy, followed by having her ovarian and fallopian tubes removed.

"Hi friends. A few months ago I was diagnosed with MS," she tweeted. "It’s been a strange journey. But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition. It’s been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going. Unless some a------ blocks it.

"As one of my friends that has MS said 'we wake up and take the indicated action,'" she wrote in a follow-up tweet. "And that’s what I do. So now I ask for privacy. As I go through this thing. Thank you xo."

Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system that affects a person’s brain and spinal cord, slowing down or blocking communications between the brain and body. Most people are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, and the cause remains unknown, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Nearly 1 million people are living with MS in the U.S., and the disease is 2-3 times more common in women, according to the NMSS.

Applegate won a Primetime Emmy for her work as a guest star on "Friends" in 2003 and has been nominated for six Emmys, most recently for Outstanding Lead for a Comedy Series in 2020 for her work in the Netflix comedy "Dead to Me."

Applegate is a mother of a 10-year-old daughter, Sadie, with husband Martyn LeNoble.

Selma Blair, 49, Applegate's co-star in the 2002 comedy "The Sweetest Thing," has also been living with multiple sclerosis. She shared in 2018 that she has the disease.

"I am disabled. I fall sometimes," she wrote on Instagram. "I drop things. My memory is foggy. And my left side is asking for directions from a broken gps. But we are doing it. And I laugh and I don’t know exactly what I will do precisely but I will do my best.”

Former "Sopranos" star Jamie-Lynn Sigler also revealed in 2016 that she had been living with MS for 15 years. Reality star Jack Osbourne, the son of heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne and talk show host Sharon Osbourne, has been an advocate for those living with the disease since being diagnosed in 2012.

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