Christina Applegate Recalls Early MS Symptoms: 'I Couldn't Walk'

Christina Applegate spoke about the early symptoms of multiple sclerosis she experienced while filming the last season of Dead to Me. Applegate, 50, was diagnosed with the disease in 2021 but remained committed to finishing the final season of the hit Netflix dramedy series. The Married... With Children star said she could not walk and needed a wheelchair to get to the set.

"Can I say, it sucked balls?" Applegate asked on The Kelly Clarkson Show Thursday when discussing her MS experience. She went on to call shooting Dead to Me Season 3 the "hardest thing" she has ever done. "I was diagnosed during shooting and I didn't know what was happening to me. I couldn't walk," Applegate recalled. "They had to use a wheelchair to get me to set. I was freaking out until someone was like, 'You need an MRI.'"

Applegate was diagnosed with MS on a Monday after she finished filming. "A disease that I'm going to have for the rest of my life," Applegate told Kelly Clarkson, via Entertainment Tonight. "And then I started thinking about the last four years and I had very small symptoms."

The Anchorman star hoped her experience helps others realize the importance of listening to their bodies. She noted how she would often feel tired when working, which may have been an early sign of MS. "It presented itself a few years ago until it just got as bad as it did," she said.

Applegate told fans in August 2021 that she was diagnosed with MS a few months prior. "I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition," she wrote. "It's been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going. Unless some a—hole blocks it." 

Production on Dead to Me Season 3 was postponed while she received treatment, and the new episodes were released on Nov. 17. On Nov. 15, Applegate made her first public appearance since being diagnosed to attend her Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony. Katey Sagal, who played her mom on Married... With Children, was there to support her.

In a recent interview with Variety, Applegate said Dead to Me's Jen Harding may be the last lead role of her career. "I'm pretty convinced that this was it, you know?" she said. "But who knows – I'm probably gonna get real bored of being in my room. I'd like to develop stuff, I'd like to produce stuff. I've got a lot of ideas in my mind, and I just need to get them executed."