Watch: Christina Applegate Makes "Real, Raw, Honest" Instagram Debut Amid MS BattleChristina Applegate is sharing a candid update on her health. Years after sharing her multiple sclerosis diagnosis, the Married...with Children alum opened up about how her condition has rendered her bedridden due to chronic pain. But even through Christina's struggles with MS, spending time with her 15-year-old daughter Sadie-who she shares with husband Martyn LeNoble-at school drop-off is worth fighting for. "I want to take her; it's my favorite thing to do," Christina told People in an interview published Feb. 24. "It's the only time we have together by ourselves" "I tell myself, 'Just get her there safely and get home so you can get back into bed,'" the 54-year-old explained. "And that's what I do." Since being diagnosed with the autoimmune disease, which impacts the central nervous system, the Dead to Me actress has been candid about how the condition, which she went public with in 2021, has impacted on her life. "My life isn't wrapped up with a bow," she explained. "People's lives, sorry for lack of a better term, f--king suck sometimes. So, I'm being as honest and raw as I possibly can."readChristina Applegate Hospitalized for Double Kidney InfectionPart of her candor includes sharing how MS has affected her daughter. "In my situation, Sadie only knew me as healthy and a runner and a Pelotoner and a dancer-and she only knew that," Christina explained to friend Jamie-Lynn Sigler on the Aug. 26 episode of their MeSsy podcast. "So then when this came about in 2021, she was, like, stoic about it." "I see her look at me when I'm in bed," she continued. "And can't quite move or, I want to go say goodnight to her in her room but I can't quite get down the hallway for whatever reason my legs aren't working that day."Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Critics Choice AssociationAs Christina's illness becomes her family's new normal, she explained how it has "broken" Sadie. "She didn't know this," the Emmy winner continued. "It was like losing the mom she had to this f--king thing. And the more she's gotten older now, I think the more it's hurting her." To further share her experience with the disease, Christina recently made the decision to give her fans an even closer look at her life by launching a new social media account. "If you told me a year ago that I'd be on Instagram, I would have said, F--k off!" she wrote in an Oct. 16 post on the platform. "But here I am, so I'm going to do it my way. Real, raw, honest." As Christina continues to document her journey with MS, read on for a closer look at everything she's shared so far...
David Fisher/ShutterstockHealth JourneyChristina Applegate shared she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021. "Hi friends. A few months ago I was diagnosed with MS," she shared on her social media channels that August. "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--hole blocks it."Stewart Cook/ShutterstockFirst Public Appearance"Oh, by the way, I have a disease," she joked during her November 2022 Hollywood Walk of Fame induction ceremony, her first public appearance since her MS diagnosis. "Did you not notice? I'm not even wearing shoes."Daniele Venturelli/WireImageEarly SymptomsChristina believes her MS journey actually began "six or seven years" before her 2021 diagnosis. "I noticed, especially the first season [of Dead to Me], we'd be shooting and my leg would buckle," Christina explained during a March 2024 interview on Good Morning America. "I really just put it off as being tired, or I'm dehydrated, or it's the weather. Then nothing would happen for months, and I didn't pay attention." By the time she was shooting the Netflix series' third and final season, the actress said she was "being brought to set in a wheelchair." "I couldn't move that far," she recalled, "so I had to tell everybody because I needed help."X/Christina ApplegateMaking MovesThe Dead to Me star captioned this photo of her cane collection amid her battle with MS: "Walking sticks are now part of my new normal."Matt Baron/BEI/ShutterstockStrong StatementJoined by her daughter Sadie Grace LeNoble, Christina had a simple message for multiple sclerosis while attending the 2023 SAG Awards: "F U MS."Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesJust JokesAfter a receiving standing ovation at the 2023 Emmys, the Married...
With Children alum quipped, "You're totally shaming me with disability by standing up."Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Critics Choice AssociationHealing Through Humor"I make these jokes because if I don't, I'll suffocate," Christina shared on a March 2024 episode on Armchair Expert, explaining why she often pokes fun at her condition. "I'll be done."Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Critics Choice AssociationMS On Her Mind"I have 30 lesions on my brain," she said on the same podcast.