On the latest episode of her podcast MeSsy, which she co-hosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Applegate said her doctor told her, “Congratulations, you don’t have MS.” She described her reaction as anything but happy. “I was not happy at all, everybody else was so happy, crying,” she said. Sigler, who has MS herself, responded by saying her first thought was, “You can dance again.”
However, Applegate emphasised that the misdiagnosis has not improved her condition. “You don’t get misdiagnosed and suddenly, I’m better. I haven’t gotten better, Jamie, if anything I have gotten worse, so I’m back at square one,” she said. She still suffers every symptom of MS, uses a wheelchair when visiting the doctor, and cannot walk from her car to the room.
The actor also spoke about how the news affects her role as a public advocate. “It’s weird because I feel like I let everybody down,” she said.
The timeline of Applegate’s health journey was detailed in her memoir You With the Sad Eyes, published earlier this year. In August, she was discharged from hospital after an almost four-month stay, according to Page Six. She has also been through a double mastectomy after a breast cancer diagnosis at age 36.
There is no single test for MS, the article notes, and a diagnosis often requires ruling out other causes, a process that can take years. Applegate’s case underscores the complexity of diagnosing autoimmune diseases.