“There’s no question. I knew what I was doing when I had kids growing up.”
Christina Applegate isn’t the only one who misses who she was before her diagnosis.
The 53-year-old “Dead to Me” actress announced in August 2021 that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) several months prior. At the time, she described it as a “tough road” on X.
Now four years later, Applegate credits her daughter for being “the reason I’m still here and trying.”
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During a recent appearance on “Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa,” Applegate opened up about her journey with MS and detailed one of the difficult conversations she had with her daughter.
“We got into a big thing the other day, and sorry Sadie, but it has to be said,” the actress explained.
Applegate shares her 14-year-old daughter Sadie with her husband Martyn LeNoble, whom she has been married to since 2013, per People.
Just a fun fact, the suit my kid is wearing was Scott Weiland’s suit from one of his solo album covers. Scott gave my husband, Martyn, that suit long ago in the glorious 90’s Also we were quite a pair last night. She fractured her ankle this week, hence the boot, and me…MS pic.twitter.com/5rqv7d4chb
— christina applegate (@1capplegate) January 17, 2023
“She said, 'I missed who you were before you got sick,'" Applegate continued. "That is just like a knife to the heart because I miss who I was before I got sick too. Very much."
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, MS is a chronic disease of the central nervous system in which the body’s immune system attacks itself by mistake.
Though symptoms are unpredictable and most people have a different experience with it, common symptoms include numbness, weakness, trouble walking, vision changes and more, per Johns Hopkins.
“Every day of my life, it’s such a loss,” Applegate said of her diagnosis. “See, now I’m gonna cry.”
Jamie-Lynn Sigler, a fellow actress and one of Applegate’s close friends who also has MS, joined Applegate on Ripa’s podcast and shared a similar sentiment.
“My little one hates it. He’s mad that I can’t run like all the other moms, he points out all the time that I walk like an old lady,” Sigler said of her experience with MS as a mom of two, per the New York Post.
As for her older son, Sigler said he takes a different approach to her diagnosis.
“He looks at me like, ‘You’re gonna beat this thing one day, mom,’” she explained. “He congratulates me all the time for how hard I work, he tells me I’m doing amazing, he’s my cheerleader.”
The “Sopranos” actress shares sons Beau, 11, and Jack, 7, with her husband Cutter Dykstra, according to Us Weekly.
Applegate has previously opened up about parenting with MS
Applegate’s conversation with Ripa and Sigler comes four months after she opened up about how MS has affected her as a parent in an interview with People.
The “Anchorman” actress was candid about how her daughter has seen “the loss of her mom.”
“Dancing with her every day. Picking her up from school every day. Working at her school, working in the library. Being present out of the house, out of my bed,” Applegate explained.
“She doesn't see those things anymore. This is a loss for her as well. And we're both learning as we're going along,” she added.
I don't usually show pics of my kid. But this photo celebrating pride, needed to be shared!#LoveWins pic.twitter.com/3X13BBNMX3
— christina applegate (@1capplegate) June 29, 2015
Applegate went on to explain how much she misses being there for her child.
“She'll come in the room, and if she sees that I'm laying on my side, she knows that she can't ask me to do anything,” she told People.
“And that breaks me, breaks me. Because I love doing stuff for my kid. I love making her food. I love bringing it to her. I love all of it, and I just can't sometimes. But I try,” she continued.
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Applegate and LeNoble got engaged in 2010, welcomed their daughter in 2011 and tied the knot in 2013, according to People. They celebrated their 12-year wedding anniversary earlier this year.
