Christina Applegate Says Her MS Was Misdiagnosed

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‘Back at Square One’: Christina Applegate Says Her M.S. Was Misdiagnosed

The actress, who was given a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 2021, was told by a doctor that she doesn’t have it after all.

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· 6:30 min

Published Oct. 20, 2026Updated Oct. 21, 2026

The actress Christina Applegate, who received a multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2021, said on Tuesday that she had been unexpectedly plunged back into uncertainty after a doctor told her she didn’t have multiple sclerosis after all.

“This may come as great news, but to me it comes as like I’m back at square one,” Ms. Applegate said on “MeSsy,” a podcast she hosts with the actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler. She broke into tears as she described the doctor’s words: “She came into my room and she said, ‘Congratulations, you don’t have M.S.’”

“Well, I was not happy at all,” she said, explaining that her symptoms did not go away when the diagnosis did. “Everybody else was so happy.”

“You don’t get misdiagnosed and then all of a sudden I’m better,” she added.

The about-face, Ms. Applegate said, doesn’t mean she’s not sick anymore. It means she’s still sick but doesn’t know why — a common experience for people with complex chronic illnesses, and one Ms. Applegate already went through for years before receiving her M.S. diagnosis.

Women are especially prone to these sorts of diagnostic odysseys, both because doctors are more likely to minimize their symptoms than men’s, and because many hard-to-diagnose immune conditions — including multiple sclerosis — are more common in women.

Ms. Applegate has been open for years about her illness, which she said on her podcast began with numbness in her toes that spread up her legs and advanced into pain. She developed balance, mobility and gastrointestinal problems as well.

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