Christina Applegate Experiences First Symptoms of MS in ‘Dead To Me’ Pilot

Christina Applegate was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021 – but the actress revealed she first noticed the mysterious symptoms more than two years ago while filming the pilot episode Dead To Me.

The actress (55) talked about her experiences in her podcast, Chaoticwhich she co-hosts with a fellow actress and MS patient Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Applegate was talking to a close friend of hers, Dead To Me creator Liz Feldman when she revealed that her symptoms first started appearing in 2019 – but she dismissed them for a while before seeking medical help.

Applegate said she unexpectedly collapsed while running across a field during a scene in the award-nominated Netflix dark comedy-drama series — and now realizes it was an early sign of an autoimmune condition. “I remember falling that day,” she said. “Hello first grade MS!”

Feldman also remembered that moment. “I remember you losing your balance a few times, but it was very hard to tell,” she said. “I remember one time it was really late at night, we’d been filming for about 2 or 3 hours, it seemed perfectly reasonable that someone would collapse.”

It was only in 2021, during the filming of the third and final season Dead To Methat Applegate was diagnosed after back problems, tingling and other symptoms. Feldman was quick to assure the actress that her health took precedence over the show. “There’s no playbook for this,” Feldman said. “I just sensed that A, she was scared and B, that something was wrong, something in her body wasn’t working the way she wanted it to. I told her so many times that it was just a TV show; we’re doing a TV show and it’s so stupid, you know, at the end of the day!” She added: “I knew Christina well enough to know that something big had to happen because she’s an extreme professional.

The support Applegate received from Feldman and others Dead To Me cast and crew continued until the end of the show, with producers adjusting her scenes to make her more comfortable as her mobility became impaired. “That wouldn’t happen anywhere else,” Applegate said. “So thank you for being human—because you should be human and love other humans!—I can’t even tell you, that’s not a normal reaction!

Related: Christina Applegate says her “sick sense of humor” keeps her going

Christina Applegate thinks laughter is the best medicine amid her battle with multiple sclerosis. Applegate, 52, who announced her MS diagnosis in 2021, appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday, March 18, and joked about making a funny entrance to the show. “I thought it wouldn’t be funny if I went out and I (…)

Since her diagnosis, Applegate has retired from acting, but has not mastered the voiceover. In an earlier episode of the Messy podcast shared with Sigler that she was in pain “every day”. “I was lying in bed screaming,” she said. “Like sharp pains, pain, pinching.