Married with Children star Christina Applegate has revealed she has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Posting to social media, Applegate said she had discovered she had MS “a few months ago,” while adding that she’s set to embark on a “tough road”.
“A few months ago I was diagnosed with MS,” the Dead to Me star began.
“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,” she said in a tweet on Tuesday.
“As one of my friends that has MS said ‘we wake up and take the indicated action.’ And that’s what I do. So now I ask for privacy. As I go through this thing,” her tweet added.
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. It’s been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going. Unless some asshole blocks it.
— christina applegate (@1capplegate) August 10, 2021
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Multiple sclerosis – often referred to as MS – is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the immune system begins to attack the sheath that protects nerve fibres, making it difficult for the brain to communicate with the rest of the body.
The star’s diagnosis comes after she was diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2008, after which she had a double mastectomy.
“I cry at least once a day about it because it’s hard to overlook it when you’re standing there in the mirror. When you look down, it’s the first thing you see… So you’re reminded constantly of this thing, this cancer thing that you had,” Applegate told the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2008.
Applegate isn’t the only celebrity who has spoken out about being diagnosed with the devastating disease – actress Selma Blair has been candid with her journey after learning she had MS back in 2018.
“It was on that runway, with the thrill of walking in the show, that I suddenly lost feeling in my left leg,” Blair told Town and Country of the symptoms that lead her to realise something was wrong.
“But I was on a runway and thinking, What do I do?”
Six months later, a doctor discovered lesions on her brain, and Blair made her diagnosis public via Instagram.
“I am disabled. I fall sometimes. I drop things. My memory is foggy. And my left side is asking for directions from a broken GPS,” she wrote alongside a photo of a wardrobe fitting for the Netflix show Another Life.
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