Christina Applegate wishes she’d been as honest about her experience with breast cancer as she is now about battling multiple sclerosis.
In August 2008, the actress announced that she was diagnosed with breast cancer after doctors discovered it through an MRI. It was caught early, and Applegate underwent a double mastectomy to prevent recurrence.
During her interview on the Armchair Expert podcast this week, Applegate reflected on that time, saying that being more candid about her difficulties would have been more helpful than making everything sound peachy-keen. “I was the good girl, talking about, ‘Oh, I love my new boobs—that are all scarred and fucked up.’ What was I thinking?” she said.
ADVERTISEMENT
“My first interview was with Robin Roberts when I had cancer. And, you know, I’m sitting there lying my ass off about how I felt,” she continued. “I got up and I literally fell into the wall and sobbed because it was a lie. Everything I was saying was a freaking lie. It was me trying to convince myself of something, and I think that did no service to anyone.”
Applegate said that after her breast cancer diagnosis, she did all of the things she thought she was supposed to do. “I started a foundation right away and we raised millions of dollars for women to get MRIs who were at high risk. We did a good thing, but at the back of it, I was taking off my bra and crying every night. I wish that I had said that.”
The Dead To Me actress vowed to do things differently when it came to sharing her experience with MS, she said. After going public with her diagnosis in 2021, she’s been very open about how difficult it’s been living with the chronic disease. In her latest interview with Roberts earlier this month, Applegate admitted that she’s lived in a “kind of hell” with MS.
Opening up more about her health on Armchair Expert, she said she has “30 lesions on my brain, like herpes sores basically. My biggest one is behind my right eye, so my right eye hurts a lot.”
“You can’t overcome [MS],” Applegate added on Armchair Expert. “People go like, ‘Well, why don’t you exercise?’ Because I can’t. Like it hurts the second my feet hit my carpet in the morning and they’re hurting as bad as they do every single day. Then I go, fuck it. I’m just gonna lay back in bed.”
Applegate recently started a new podcast, MeSsy, with her friend and fellow actress Jamie Lynn Sigler, where they both share what it’s like to live with the disease. On the first episode, Applegate admitted that battling MS was so difficult that she’d considered quitting acting. But on Armchair Expert, she said she’s especially interested in voice-acting these days.
“As long as I can speak, I’d love to do that,” she said. “It’d be fun. Mama needs to do something.”
