Christina Applegate spoke candidly on Wednesday about the moment she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, saying it “sucked balls.”
The “Dead to Me” star then asked Kelly Clarkson, “Can I say that?”
The “Kelly Clarkson Show” host laughed, replying, “You can say whatever the hell you want.”
Applegate, 51, went on to tell Clarkson, 40, about receiving the diagnosis while shooting the third and final season of her Netflix show.
“I found out on a Monday after work that I had MS, a disease I’m gonna have for the rest of my life,” she recalled.
For four years prior to her diagnosis, the actress had been unknowingly experiencing “very small symptoms” of the chronic disease.
The Kelly Clarkson Show/Youtube
The Kelly Clarkson Show/Youtube
The Kelly Clarkson Show/Youtube
“I didn’t know what was happening to me,” she explained. “I couldn’t walk. They had to use a wheelchair to get me to set. I was freaking out. Someone was like, ‘You need an MRI.'”
Applegate revealed her diagnosis in an August 2021 tweet, writing, “A few months ago I was diagnosed with MS. It’s been a strange journey.
SplashNews.com
Getty Images for Netflix
MEGA
Patrick McMullan via Getty Image
“But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition,” she continued at the time. “It’s been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going. Unless some a–hole blocks it.”
The “Married … With Children” alum gave the New York Times an update on her condition in November of the following year.
“This is the first time anyone’s going to see me the way I am,” Applegate said of gaining 40 pounds and walking with a cane.
“I’m never going to accept this,” she admitted to the newspaper. “I’m pissed.”
The “Jesse” alum, who is married to Martyn LeNoble and is the mother of daughter Sadie, 11, previously fought breast cancer in 2008.
As she now battles MS, “Dead to Me” may be one of Applegate’s final acting gigs.
“Jen Harding is … quite possibly the last [character] I’ll play,” the Emmy nominee told Variety last month. “With my disease, I don’t know how capable I am. But this was a gift.”
That same month, however, news broke that Applegate has been cast in the “It’s a Wonderful Life” online table read on Dec. 11.
