Christina Applegate is navigating a new chapter of her health journey.
The Married With Children alum—who shared her multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2021—recorded the latest episode of her MesSy podcast with Jamie-Lynn Sigler from her hospital room, where she’s currently being treated for a kidney infection.
“I’m not doing a podcast from the hospital because I felt like doing one from the hospital was an awesome idea,” Christina explained on the Aug. 5 episode. “We just happened to have this scheduled and they won’t let me leave yet because things are messy. But I’m gonna be OK.”
The 53-year-old told listeners that while on a recent trip to see family in Europe, she was experiencing serious pain and “was not feeling good the whole time I was there.” Following her flight home, Christina went straight to the hospital to avoid potentially waking up in more pain and heading to the ER at 3 o’clock in the morning.
“I'm like, ‘I wanna be admitted. I’m staying here because I want answers,’” she told staff. “‘I want every test that you can possibly think of or ones that you haven't even thought of, and I want them done.’”
The pain on her right side got so intense, she was sure that her appendix was bursting.
“So much pain. I'm screaming, and they ordered me an emergency CT at 2 o’clock in the morning,” she shared. “I went in and got a CT and I had a kidney infections.”
Since the infection had spread to both of her kidneys, the Dead to Me actress said she was on intravenous antibiotics. As for how she got the kidney infection? Doctors wondered if it perhaps started as a urinary tract infection that moved up into the kidney—something Christina actually took some issue with.
“Like, what am I back-wiping? Like, seriously, I'm 53,” she laughed. “They actually asked me—this was a long time ago when I got a UTI here—they’re like, ‘Are you wiping correctly?’ I said, ‘Don’t even say correctly.’”
Christina joked, “‘Yes, I love to take my own s--t and wipe it into my vagina hole.’ I have the cleanest vagina. I’m a clean girl down yonder.”
And while there is a chance her infection could be “something else,” the podcast host didn’t want to say what that could be, adding, “I don’t want it to sound scary.”
And unfortunately Christina’s MS diagnosis has made it so that she is often in the hospital.
“For three years, since I was diagnosed, I’ve been in the hospital upwards of 30 times from throwing up and diarrhea and pain,” she revealed on her MesSy podcast March 19. “That is unimaginable, OK? They’ve done every test known to man on me, put so much radiation into my body from CT scans to everything else.”
For a look at Christina’s health journey, keep reading.
Health Journey
Christina Applegate shared she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021.
"Hi friends. A few months ago I was diagnosed with MS," she shared on her social media channels that August. "It's been a strange journey. But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition. It's been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going. Unless some a--hole blocks it."
First Public Appearance
"Oh, by the way, I have a disease," she joked during her November 2022 Hollywood Walk of Fame induction ceremony, her first public appearance since her MS diagnosis. "Did you not notice? I'm not even wearing shoes."
Early Symptoms
Christina believes her MS journey actually began "six or seven years" before her 2021 diagnosis.
"I noticed, especially the first season [of Dead to Me], we'd be shooting and my leg would buckle," Christina explained during a March 2024 interview on Good Morning America. "I really just put it off as being tired, or I'm dehydrated, or it's the weather. Then nothing would happen for months, and I didn't pay attention."
By the time she was shooting the Netflix series' third and final season, the actress said she was "being brought to set in a wheelchair."
"I couldn't move that far," she recalled, "so I had to tell everybody because I needed help."
Making Moves
The Dead to Me star captioned this photo of her cane collection amid her battle with MS: "Walking sticks are now part of my new normal."
Strong Statement
Joined by her daughter Sadie Grace LeNoble, Christina had a simple message for multiple sclerosis while attending the 2023 SAG Awards: "F U MS."
Just Jokes
After a receiving standing ovation at the 2023 Emmys, the Married...With Children alum quipped, "You're totally shaming me with disability by standing up."
Healing Through Humor
"I make these jokes because if I don't, I'll suffocate," Christina shared on a March 2024 episode on Armchair Expert, explaining why she often pokes fun at her condition. "I'll be done."
MS On Her Mind
"I have 30 lesions on my brain," she said on the same podcast. "My biggest one is behind my right eye, so my right eye hurts a lot."
Legions are caused by the immune system attacking the myelin sheath around nerves, according to the Multiple Sclerosis Trust.
Getting Candid
Christina hasn’t held back when it comes to sharing her journey.
"It sucks," the Anchorman actress told late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel of her daily struggles with MS. "I'm not going to lie. I think anyone who has MS isn't going to be like, 'This is the best thing that ever happened to me!'"
In Her Bubble
When talking about her day-to-day life with the disease, Christina told Good Morning America in March 2024, "I live kind of in hell."
"But I might get to a place where I function a little bit better," she added. "Right now, I'm isolating, and that's kind of how I'm dealing with it—by not going anywhere because I don't want to do it. It's hard."
The Sweetest Support
Christina credited her Sweetest Thing costar Selma Blair—who was diagnosed with MS in 2018—for urging her to get tested for the disease.
"She said, 'You need to get checked for MS,'" Christina recalled during her GMA interview. "If not for her, it could've been way worse."
Friendship Never Dies
Christina confirmed that Dead to Me will likely be her last onscreen credit, telling Vanity Fair in May 2023, "I can’t even imagine going to set right now."
"I’m probably not going to work on-camera again, but I'm so glad that I went out with someone who is by far the greatest actress I’ve ever worked with in my entire life," she said of costar Linda Cardellini, "if not the greatest human I’ve ever known.