Christina Applegate Says She Relies on Reality TV — Including Some Bravo Favorites! — to Cope with MS

Mar. 15, 2025

Christina Applegate.Photo:David Crotty/Patrick McMullan/Getty

David Crotty/Patrick McMullan/Getty

Christina Applegatehas a relatable answer as to what gets her through hard days.

TheDead to Mestar, 52, appeared onJames Corden’s SiriusXM showThis Life of Mineto discuss living withmultiple sclerosis. When Corden questioned if music has been helpful in moving through challenging moments, she confessed that she actually has another outlet she prefers.

“I find reality television very useful, that’s kind of it for me,” she said. “Anyone who knows me well knows that it’s on 24/7 in my room, because I don’t leave my room very often. I know that sounds really depressing but it’s kind of like, I need to sleep sometimes.”

Christina Applegate (left) and James Corden (right).Emma McIntyre/Getty

Emma McIntyre/Getty

As for what shows are her go-tos, Applegate said “everything” reality does the trick for her.

“Give me any of it,” she joked. “Give me aVanderpump[Rules], give me aBelow Deck, give me a[Real]Housewife, even give meKitchen NightmareswithGordon Ramsay— I’ll watch like nine seasons of that in like two days.”

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The actress wasdiagnosed with MS back in 2021after “feeling ill for so long,” she told Corden. When she finally got the diagnosis, she said she was glad to know what was wrong but hearing it was MS was difficult to wrap her around around.

“For years and years and years, I’d have some weird things like balance issues, speech issues, my hands would shake sometimes,” she shared. “And I remember playing tennis, I played tennis a couple times a week, and my knee would go out. It was like, ‘Oh, I’m dehydrated. It’s too hot out. Whatever.’”

Christina Applegate.Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

Applegate said in January 2021, right beforeDead to Mewas set to shoot its final season, she noticed her toes would go numb and she would mistake that feeling for muscle spasms from hiking. When filming began, she revealed she couldn’t “even walk up the steps to my trailer.”

“After some tests, they did an MRI in my brain and it was a Monday and we were at work and my doctor said, ‘I really need to get on a Zoom with you to go over your MRI results,’” she recalled. “I remember saying to [crew], ‘I have to leave. I have to go home and be there at seven.’ And they’re like, ‘Well, we have like one more scene to do,’ and I just said, ‘I can’t. I gotta go home.’”

When she got on the Zoom call with her doctor, Applegate saidshe could tellshe was about to get bad news.

“[The doctor] just looked at me and he goes, ‘I’m so sorry,’ and I was like, ‘What do you mean?’” she said. “He goes, ‘Here’s a picture of your brain. Sorry,’ and there’s like 30 lesions all over my brain, and I went, ‘No, please don’t tell me this. Please don’t tell me this.’”

Christina Applegate.Kevin Winter/Getty

Kevin Winter/Getty

Panicking, theAnchormanalum said she immediately knew she had to tellDead to Meproduction because her diagnosis would impact her role in the show. When she called them, she didn’t quite have all the words.

“I said, ‘You guys, it’s f—ing MS,’” she told Corden. “And they’re like, ‘Okay, we’re shutting down for the week.’ That was it. And then we were just trying to figure out how to film and stuff, and we did. I mean, we finished it. It took us a long time, but we finished it.”

“I remember that moment like it was yesterday,” she concluded.

source: people.com