Christina Applegate Gives Sad Health Update Amid MS Battle

Christina Applegate is opening up about her health amid her multiple sclerosis journey.

The Married…with Children alum, 54, shared in a new interview with PEOPLE, published on Tuesday, that five years after receiving her diagnosis, she is largely confined to being on or in her bed for the majority of the day due to her chronic pain.

Applegate does push herself, however, to take her daughter Sadie, whom she shares with husband Martyn LeNoble, to school and activities. “I want to take her; it’s my favorite thing to do,” the actress said of her 15-year-old. “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,’” she continued. “And that’s what I do.”

The Dead to Me actress has always spoken candidly about how her MS, a chronic disease of the central nervous system, impacts her life, hosting the podcast MeSsy alongside her friend, Sopranos actress and fellow MS sufferer Jamie-Lynn Sigler.

“My life isn’t wrapped up with a bow,” she confessed. “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.”

In June 2024, Applegate opened up to Sigler on their podcast about the “real, f—k-it-all depression” she had fallen into, admitting that it felt “really fatalistic.” She continued, “I don’t mean that, but I’m trapped in this darkness right now that I haven’t felt in probably 20-something years. I don’t enjoy living. I don’t enjoy it. I don’t enjoy things anymore.”

She explained in a podcast episode later that month that she found it “incredibly healing and important” to be able to express the “dark” thoughts she has amid her health journey, “whether that makes someone uncomfortable or not to be able to say that.”

The Anchorman star added that she believes “there’s so much shame a lot of people feel when they’re going through mental health issues. It’s not mental issues. It’s not a problem. It’s a moment. It’s a thought. It’s a feeling. And when people hold those in because they’re so afraid to say how they truly feel, we give it immense power.”

Applegate’s new memoir, You With the Sad Eyes, hits bookshelves on March 3. “We all have come from somewhere, some places more painful than others, and it’s what you do with it, I guess,” the actress told PEOPLE. “This is not an inspirational book, by any means. But it can inspire.”