Christina Applegate Receives a Shock MS Diagnosis Reversal
Christina Applegate has said she now doesn’t ‘have a reason’ as to why her ‘day sucked every day’ after being given a shock misdiagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS). The Anchorman actor, 54, has been told she does not have the condition despite years of debilitating symptoms and being hospitalised earlier this year following health issues.
Applegate was diagnosed with MS in 2021 and subsequently announced that she would step away from appearing on-screen. Netflix series Dead to Me was one of her last major gigs, and the disease affected her ability to perform in its final season, which was released in 2023. She has been open about her experience since then.
On 20 October, speaking on her MeSsy podcast with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, where the pair discuss their lives with MS, Applegate explained that her doctor had told her, after all these years, that she does not have MS. Applegate and Sigler were joined by Dr Marwa Kaisey for the second episode of the back-to-back podcast release. Kaisey is an associate professor in the department of neurology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
The Doctor’s Visit That Changed Applegate’s Diagnosis
Applegate recalled the moment a doctor entered her hospital room:
“She came into my room and said, ‘Congratulations, you don’t have MS’,”
She continued:
“I was, like, not happy at all. Everybody else was so happy.”
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Dr Marwa Kaisey said MS misdiagnoses are ‘fairly common’, with 20 percent of those diagnosed reportedly turning out not to have the disease. She explained that confirming or ruling out MS is not based on one definitive test:
“We don’t have one single test for MS. 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.”
Applegate Says Her Symptoms Have Not Improved
Applegate was clear that learning she had been misdiagnosed did not mean her health had suddenly improved. She stated:
“You don’t get misdiagnosed and then all of the sudden I’m better,”
Having not got any better, she said that if anything, she’s ‘gotten worse’. Applegate explained that she is back at the beginning of her search for an explanation:
“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 actor was emotional during the podcast as she described the effect her condition has had on her life, saying she has gone ‘through a great depression’ and ‘lost everything’. She asked:
“What do you say to someone who’s been living with this for six years — God, I’m so sorry — because it stopped my life,”
Applegate also detailed the mobility problems that continue despite the reversed diagnosis:
“I still have to use wheelchairs when I go to the doctor’s office. I can’t walk from the car to the room. I’m still in this. Nothing magical happened when she said, ‘You don’t have MS.’ Nothing magical happened.”
She also added that she feels as if she’s ‘let everybody down’:
“It’s this weird feeling because I became this — you and I, the poster children for MS. And everything I was doing. I had a reason. I had a… reason as to why my day sucked every day. And now I don’t have a reason and it’s very unnerving and it’s very confusing for me.”
Applegate remains in a ‘state of shock’ about the misdiagnosis and now views her ongoing health journey as ‘the same game with a different name’.
Why This Matters
For Applegate, the reversal of her diagnosis has not ended the health problems that shaped the past six years. She continues to report pain, depression and significant mobility limitations, while her doctors investigate what has been happening since 2021. Her account describes an ongoing search for an explanation rather than the arrival at a new diagnosis.
Dr Marwa Kaisey’s comments place the reported misdiagnosis in the context of MS diagnostic complexity. There is no single test for the condition, she said, and diagnosis instead depends on a list of criteria. The initial diagnosis and later reversal therefore form part of the medical history Applegate and her doctors are now reassessing.
The next step Applegate described is a review by her doctors to determine what has been occurring since 2021 and why the earlier diagnosis was made. Until that investigation provides answers, she says, she remains in shock and continues to live with the symptoms that prompted her to step away from on-screen work.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Christina Applegate learn about her multiple sclerosis diagnosis?
During the 20 October episode of her MeSsy podcast, Applegate said a doctor told her that she does not have MS. The statement reversed the diagnosis she received in 2021 after years of symptoms that affected her work and daily life.
Are Christina Applegate’s symptoms improving?
No. Applegate reported continuing pain and mobility limitations, including needing a wheelchair at doctor’s appointments and being unable to walk from the car to the room. She said her doctors are investigating what has been happening since 2021.
What did Dr Marwa Kaisey say about diagnosing multiple sclerosis?
Kaisey described MS misdiagnoses as ‘fairly common’ and said 20 percent of those diagnosed reportedly do not have the disease. She said there is no single test for MS and that doctors instead use a list of diagnostic criteria.
