Christina Applegate is opening up about one of the most heartbreaking moments in her ongoing battle with multiple sclerosis — when her teenage daughter told her she missed the mother she used to be.
The 53-year-old actress, who was diagnosed with MS in 2021, revealed on Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa that her 14-year-old daughter Sadie recently confessed how difficult it’s been coping with her illness. “She said, ‘I miss who you were before you got sick.’ That is just like a knife to the heart,” Christina admitted, her voice heavy with emotion. “Because I miss who I was before I got sick too. Very much.”
Christina has always been candid about her struggles with the chronic autoimmune disease, which attacks the central nervous system and causes a range of debilitating symptoms. But hearing those words from her own child struck a deeper chord. “I don’t get up in the morning with ease,” she said. “I get up because of her. She’s the reason I’m still here and trying.”
In past interviews, the Dead to Me star hasn’t shied away from sharing the mental toll the disease has taken. On the Messy podcast, she confessed to feeling trapped in a dark place: “It’s kind of scaring me too a little bit because it feels really fatalistic… I don’t enjoy living. I don’t enjoy it. I don’t enjoy things anymore.”
Yet even in the bleakest moments, Christina finds strength in vulnerability. She emphasized the importance of acknowledging these feelings out loud. “I think it’s important to say these things,” she explained. “I dare anyone to be diagnosed with MS or any kind of chronic illness that has taken who you were and say, ‘this is great.’ You have moments where you just don’t want to do it anymore. But you do.”
She credits her close circle of friends and the support of her daughter as the reasons she keeps going. “Saying this out loud releases the pressure in the balloon, man,” she added.
Christina Applegate’s courage in speaking her truth shines a light on the silent battles so many face — and the power of love, honesty, and resilience in the fight to keep going.
