Christina Applegate says she was wrongfully diagnosed with MS

Christina Applegate says she was wrongly diagnosed with MS

Christina Applegate believed for five years that she had multiple sclerosis (MS), only to recently learn that the diagnosis was incorrect.

The actress, known for films and shows including Anchorman and Married With Children, said she was "not happy at all" when she got the news and was in tears when she found out.

"You don't get misdiagnosed and then all of the sudden I'm better," Applegate said in an episode of her Messy podcast released on Tuesday. "If anything, I've gotten worse."

The two-part episode, co-hosted by Jamie Sigler, marks the end of a recent break she took to absorb the information. An investigation into the cause of her debilitating symptoms - which she experiences daily - is set to begin next week.

"I'm back at square one where I don't know what's going on with me," she said.

On the podcast, Applegate said that "all of a sudden, a few years ago," her doctor recommended stopping her MS infusion treatment to see how her body would react.

While she was off treatment, her body did not respond in a way that would suggest she had MS.

Doctors then examined her case more closely and determined that she did not, in fact, have the autoimmune disease, which can lead to muscle stiffness and difficulty walking and talking.

"She came into my room and said, 'Congratulations, you don't have MS,' " Applegate said, describing the moment.

"I was, like, not happy at all," she continued. "Everybody else was so happy."

Dr Marwa Kaisey, a guest on Tuesday's episode, said MS misdiagnoses are not unusual because symptoms vary and there is no universal test. One in five people people who were told they had MS "didn't actually have it".

"It's not like we have something like a pregnancy test that says 'yes, you have it. No, you don't,'" Kaisey said. "It's a list of criteria."

Applegate was first diagnosed with MS in August 2021 after having symptoms for some time, saying then: "It's been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps on going."

Years later, she said she was in a " real depression

" and said in a 2024 episode of her podcast that "I don't enjoy living. I don't enjoy it. I don't enjoy things anymore".

She also told the New York Times that she could not walk without a cane and used a wheelchair while filming the Netflix series Dead To Me.