‘Misses who I was before MS’

Christina Applegate is sharing a heartbreaking truth about life with multiple sclerosis.

The “Dead to Me” actress, 53, revealed how her 14-year-old daughter Sadie, whom she shares with her husband Martyn LeNoble, is dealing with her health battle.

“I don’t get up in the morning with that, I get up because of her [my daughter],” Applegate said on Wednesday’s episode of Kelly Ripa’s “Let’s Talk Off Camera” podcast alongside Jamie-Lynn Sigler. “She’s the reason I’m still here and trying.”

“But she did say to me, and we got into a big thing the other day, and sorry, Sadie, but it has to be said. She said, ‘I missed who you were before you got sick,’” the “Married… with Children” alum confessed.

Applegate, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021, noted that hearing her daughter’s words stung.

“That is just like a knife to the heart because I miss who I was before I got sick, too,” she elaborated. “Very much. Every day of my life is at such a loss.”

“But anyway, see, now I’m gonna cry,” she told Ripa, 54. “See, this is my problem. I’m either like, extremely traumatic and crying, or I’m cracking myself up. So I’m never in between.”

Sigler, 44, meanwhile, has lived with MS since the age of 20 and couldn’t agree more with Applegate’s sentiments.

“That’s the truth. It’s how it is. Those words have gone through my own head. I think I judge myself the most as a mother through this journey,” the “Sopranos” star, who shares sons Beau, 11, and Jack, 7, with husband Cutter Dykstra, admitted.

“I think that’s been the hardest part for me. I have two children who react to it in two very different ways. My older son, he looks at me all, ‘You’re gonna beat this thing one day, Mom.’ He’s like my own personal ‘Ted Lasso,’” she continued. “He congratulates me all the time for how hard I work. He tells me I’m doing amazing. He’s my cheerleader.”

Sigler’s youngest child, on the other hand, holds a different perspective.

“My little one hates it. He’s mad that I can’t run like all the other moms. He points it out all the time. Why do I walk like an old lady? That’s what he says. Or like, why I can do this and I can’t do that. And I think that’s very healthy and I welcome it.”

Sigler explained that her kids are allowed to have their own feelings about her diagnosis.

“I want him to be able to express himself with me,” she stressed. “I don’t want him to feel bad because of how he feels about this, because this affects our entire family. My husband has to make sacrifices every day. So do my kids for me, so do I. I’m the mom they chose and that’s what I have to remind myself all the time.”

Sigler and Applegate have opened up about living with the disease since starting their “MeSsy” podcast in 2024.

During a March episode, the “Samantha Who?” alum got candid on an “unimaginable” health situation.

“For three years, since I was diagnosed, I’ve been in the hospital upwards of 30 times from throwing up and diarrhea and pain,” Applegate began. “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.”

The Emmy winner was finally able to get to the bottom of the issue. Applegate then advised the listener who wrote in and asked about these MS side effects.

“Now, maybe this isn’t what’s happening, but I’m just going to tell you this. Talk to your doctor about motility issues, OK,” she noted. “Because one of the things with MS is that it slows down our organs, you know, not like completely, but there is a slowing of the function of your organs.”

“I have noticed that — and I’m going to be really honest — if I have to poop, I puke,” Applegate shared. “My neuro doesn’t — God bless her — says that’s not an MS thing.”

However, the actress isn’t sure she’s right.

“So, I’m sorry, there’s got to be a correlation here, and I’m not a doctor. I’m not giving medical advice. I’m just saying, just think about that, OK? Because I’m in the middle of the same exact situation, and it f—ing sucks, and it’s scary.”

Applegate sarcastically added that her “favorite part” about having multiple sclerosis is simultaneously having diarrhea and vomiting.

The star was filming the third and final season of her Netflix comedy “Dead to Me” when she received her MS diagnosis.

“Hi friends. A few months ago I was diagnosed with MS. It’s been a strange journey. But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition,” she wrote on X at the time. “It’s been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going. Unless some asshole blocks it.”

In 2024, Sigler reflected on being diagnosed in the early 2000s.

“Immediately after the neurologist diagnosed me, they said, ‘I want you to know you can live a very full, healthy life. You can have children—you can still be an actress.’ I held deeply onto that, but I just went home with my parents and I didn’t talk about my condition again for a very long time,” she told Self Magazine.

“Someone close to me said that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to share because no one in my industry had MS. I didn’t know any young people with it,” Sigler added.

At the time, she “lived in a state of denial.”

“I was very immature,” Sigler admitted, “but I was just doing the best I could in that moment. I also wasn’t too symptomatic in those early stages, so I was able to get away with not opening up about my diagnosis—or even taking my medications.”

“I felt like if I didn’t talk about my MS, it wasn’t real. That mentality really hurt me for a long time and added an unnecessary layer of suffering on top of what I was already going through.”

“Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa” airs Tuesdays at 5pm ET on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy channel.