Christina Applegate opens up on crippling depression amid MS battle
By BRIAN NIEMIETZ | bniemietz@nydailynews.com | New York Daily News
“Trapped in this darkness,” former “Married… with Children” star Christina Applegate says multiple sclerosis (MS) has sent her into crippling depression and destroyed her joy for life.
“This is being really honest, I don’t enjoy living,” the 52-year-old Emmy winner, who was diagnosed with MS in June 2021, said on Tuesday’s episode of her “MeSsy” podcast.
She co-hosts the show with former “Sopranos” star Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who also has MS.
“I’m still f–king pissed off,” Applegate said of her diagnosis. “I’m still mad about it.”
Throughout the podcast, Sigler told Applegate it’s important to stay active, even if exercise is harder now that her central nervous system has broken down.
Applegate said she enjoys when people come over and sit in bed with her, but even going out to grab coffee is too much of a hassle. A recent television appearance drained her energy for the next two days, she added.
“It’s so hard to live in a disabled body,” Sigler said. “But what makes it harder is when you compare it to how it used to be.”
Applegate confessed she’s in a deep depression unlike anything she’s felt in decades and worries she may never feel better.
“A real, f–k-it-all depression — like, a real depression, where it’s kind of scaring me too a little bit because it feels really fatalistic, it feels really ‘end of,’” Applegate said. “I’m trapped in this darkness right now that I haven’t felt in probably 20-something years.”
But she and Sigler soon after got a laugh when Applegate joked about being unable to pronounce “disability” correctly when recently discussing her struggles.