HARD FEELINGS

‘90s Star Feels Like a ‘Fraud’ After Shock Misdiagnosis

The Emmy winner says she had to start all over.

Christina Applegate says she feels like “a fraud” after revealing her shocking multiple sclerosis misdiagnosis.

On the Nov. 3 episode of Applegate and Sopranos star Jamie-Lynn Sigler’s MeSsy podcast, guest Jack Osbourne expressed conflicted feelings over his experience with the chronic autoimmune disease.

Both Sigler and Osbourne have multiple sclerosis. Applegate, too, was diagnosed with MS and went public about her struggle in 2021. However, on Oct. 20, the Emmy-winning actress revealed that she had been misdiagnosed.

“If I’m being honest, a part of me feels like a bit of ... a fraud, in a sense,” Osbourne, who received his diagnosis in 2012, said.

When he attends events raising awareness about MS, Osbourne said he sees many patients with more recent diagnoses who are in a “much worse position” than he is.

“So, they’re having a much harder time,” he said, noting that the illness “hasn’t stopped me and it hasn’t really slowed me down.”

“Talk about being a fraud. I don’t even have it anymore,” Applegate responded.

“I lived as a person with MS for almost six years,” Applegate said. “It’s hard for me to try to shake that identity because it’s been my identity for so long.”

The Married...With Children star said healthcare professionals are again trying to find the cause of her debilitating symptoms.

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‘IN SHOCK’

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“We’re going into square one, just doing some testing and going one by one of kind of the sister diseases to MS,” Applegate said.

“You’ve got RA [rheumatoid arthritis] and you’ve got lupus and Lyme disease and all these things that kind of can mimic MS,” Applegate listed. “So now I’m being tested for all that stuff slowly but surely.”

RA is a chronic autoimmune condition that can cause symptoms like tiredness and joint stiffness, while lupus, another autoimmune condition, can lead to symptoms like stiffness, tiredness, and memory loss.

Lyme disease, typically caused by a tick bite, can lead to similar symptoms and is increasingly common as U.S. tick populations grow.

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'excruciating agony'

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Applegate recalled the moment she learned about her misdiagnosis on a Sep. 20 episode of the MeSsy podcast.

“[My doctor] came into my room and said, ‘Congratulations, you don’t have MS,’” she said amid tears. “I was, like, not happy at all. Everybody else was so happy.”

She explained that her complicated feelings related to her symptoms, which she said had “stopped [her] life.”

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‘GETTING STRONGER’

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“Nothing magical happened when she said, ‘You don’t have MS,” she said. “I still have to use wheelchairs when I go to the doctor’s office. I can’t walk from the car to the room.”

Applegate continued, “I had a f---ing reason as to why my day sucked every day. And now I don’t have a reason, and it’s very unnerving, and it’s very confusing for me.”

In late October, Applegate said she was losing “too much” weight, and her symptoms continued to worsen.

She said, “It took me 10 minutes to be able to move off my pillow and get out of the bed and stand up, at which point, I almost couldn’t walk to the bathroom, and now, a walker is sitting next to my bed because of what’s going on.”

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HEARTBREAKING

Christina Applegate Reveals Devastating Health Update

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Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

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