Actress Christina Applegate described the moment she learned that she had multiple sclerosis during a recent interview with “American Idol” winner Kelly Clarkson. Claiming that the news had “sucked b***s,” Applegate quickly scrambled to ask Clarkson whether she was actually allowed to use those words.
The “Married With Children” alum has previously spoken publicly about her battle with the debilitating disease, announcing over the summer that she was diagnosed in 2021 while filming the third and final season of her Netflix show “Dead to Me.” But during Wednesday’s interview with Clarkson, Applegate got candid about how that diagnosis came about.
After blurting out that it had “sucked b***s,” Applegate quickly turned to Clarkson and asked, “Can I say that?”
“You can say whatever the hell you want,” Clarkson confirmed with a laugh.
“I found out on a Monday after work that I had MS, a disease I’m gonna have for the rest of my life,” Applegate continued, explaining that it was only after she was officially diagnosed that she realized she had been seeing small warning signs of the progressive disease for several years before she got any real answers.
“I didn’t know what was happening to me. I couldn’t walk. They had to use a wheelchair to get me to set. I was freaking out. Someone was like, ‘You need an MRI,’” the actress recalled.
Applegate praised her Netflix producers, saying that they had allowed her the time she needed to get treatment — and even considered cutting her series short — but that she had insisted on getting back to work and finishing the story she’d set out to tell.
The “Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead” star was honored in November with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame — a ceremony she attended barefoot because MS can cause shoes to feel overly restrictive — revealing just before the event that the disease had caused her to gain weight and rendered her unable to walk without a cane.
“There was the sense of, ‘Well, let’s get her some medicine so she can get better,’” Applegate said of her first days processing the diagnosis. “And there is no better. But it was good for me. I needed to process my loss of my life, my loss of that part of me. So I needed that time.”
“Although it’s not like I came on the other side of it, like, ‘Woohoo, I’m totally fine,’” she added. “Acceptance? No. I’m never going to accept this. I’m pissed.”