Christina Applegate Details Extent of Brain Damage Caused By MS
Christina Applegate
Christina Applegate shed new light on her battle with multiple sclerosis (MS).
When it comes to updates, the 52-year-old actress has been on a roll lately, frankly speaking on and sometimes joking about the condition, evidenced by comments she made in a recent interview with Jimmy Kimmel.
Now, the Married With Children alum opened up about another side effect of the degenerative disease while speaking with Dax Shepard on this week's episode of his Armchair Expert podcast: lesions (or damaged tissue) on her brain.
"I have 30 lesions on my brain, like, herpes sores, basically, so sores all over my brain. My biggest one is behind my right eye, so my right eye hurts a lot," she said, explaining that symptoms caused by the lesions can present differently in each person with MS.
In the case of the Dead to Me actress, she said the lesions cause her to feel off and sometimes trigger what she described as a tremor. "My hand starts to go weird and then I'll get a seizure-y feeling sometimes in my brain, not all the time."
"It's the worst tattoo. It sucks. I'm not gonna sit here and… some people go, 'Oh my god, cancer's the best thing that happened to me!' And I'm like, 'Uhh, then you had a pretty s----y life,'" Applegate added. "This is the worst thing that's happened to me in my entire life. I hate it so much. I'm so mad about it."
As for how she's coping with her ongoing battle with "the worst thing that's happened to me," humor is part of it, but the other half is channeling the strength she had in 2008 after being diagnosed with breast cancer–which she underwent a double mastectomy for–and addressing this battle in a way that she only wished she did for the last.
"I make these jokes because if I don't, I'll suffocate. I'll be done," Applegate said. "I'm not ready for the healing yet. I will get there. When someone says, 'Have you accepted this as your new normal?' No, f--k you, absolutely not."
"When I had breast cancer at 36 years old, I went out and I was the good girl talking about, 'Oh, I love my new boobs!' That are all scarred and f----d up. What was I thinking?" Applegate recalled. "My first interview was with Robin Roberts when I had cancer and I'm sitting there lying my a-- off about how I felt."
But "lying" about the truth she was living served her no justice, "I fell into the wall and sobbed because it was a lie. Everything I was saying was a freaking lie. It was me trying to convince myself of something, and I think that did no service to anyone."
"Yes, I started a foundation right away. Yes, I did all the things I had to do. And we raised millions of dollars for women to get MRIs who were at risk. Yes, we did a good thing, but at the back of it, I was taking off my bra and crying every night, and I wish that I had said that," Applegate shared. "I didn't like my boobies. I still don't like my boobies. It's horrible. I don't have nipples. It's weird."
This time around, Applegate isn't "lying" to fans. Instead, she's spoken candidly about every hurdle. Even telling Shepard, "I totally hate myself. I gained 45 pounds when I got sick from medication. I've lost 30 pounds in the last few months. Not from Ozempic. I have stomach issues."
Applegate plans on continuing the new habit–of being honest with herself and her supporters–through a new podcast she hosts alongside Sopranos actress and fellow MS patient Jamie Lynn Sigler, called MeSsy.
Next: Christina Applegate Claims She’s Been Putting on an Act for 40 Years: ‘I Don’t Care Anymore’
