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Christina Applegate candidly opened up about how the debilitating symptoms of multiple sclerosis have recently affected her ability to maintain her personal hygiene.
During Tuesday’s episode of her “MeSsy” podcast, the 52-year-old actress revealed that she was suffering a “pretty bad” relapse amid her battle with the chronic disease, which affects the brain and central nervous system.
“I’m gonna be honest with you, I need to buy stock in Cottonelle because I haven’t taken a shower in three weeks,” Applegate told co-host Jamie Lynn-Sigler, who also suffers from MS.
Chrristina Applegate got candid about struggling to maintain her personal hygiene amid her battle with multiple sclerosis. (Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
She continued, “Because I can’t stand in my shower. There’s no f—— way I can use my shower.”
CHRISTINA APPLEGATE ADDRESSES FUTURE AS AN ACTRESS AMID MS DIAGNOSIS
“I have such a small bench and my a– is so huge these days that I can’t sit on it, it’s like I slip right off of it,” she added. “So, I’ve been Cottonelle-ing my body.”
The “Dead to Me” star admitted that she didn’t know if the wet wipes “were doing the job so much.”
“I smell so bad. And it’s, like, awful. Thank God I’m always alone so that no one smells me except for Sades,” she said, referring to her daughter Sadie, 12, whom she shares with her husband Martyn Le Noble.
Christina Applegate is pictured with her daughter, Sadie, 12. (Amy Sussman/WireImage/Getty Images)
At the beginning of the episode, the “Married…With Children” alum detailed the severity of her symptoms and how they were impacting different areas of her body. She explained that she was experiencing “intense pain” in her legs that made her unable to walk to the bathroom due to her fear of falling.
Applegate went on to say that she was suffering from “insane tingling” radiating from her backside down her body. She told Sigler that she couldn’t sleep due to movement problems in one of her eyes.
“I haven’t slept for 24 hours because my eye is doing something weird, where every time I close my eye to go to sleep, my right eye starts to shift like this,” she said.
After researching online, Applegate said that she learned her eye problems could be a symptom of MS resulting from possible damage to the optic nerve in her right eye.
“I couldn’t sleep because every time I would close my eyes, my eye would start doing, like, crazy s—,” she explained. “So I have been up for over 24 hours.”
The actress said that she is experiencing a “pretty bad” relapse. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association)
After Sigler asked her podcast co-host if she had contacted her doctors amid her relapse, Applegate shared that she had not yet been able to reach them.
“I’m going to have to go in and see someone because it’s a little scary and it’s freaking me out that, like, my eye is, like gonna burst out of my face or something,” she said. “So I’m a little concerned about that. My legs have never been this bad, so I don’t know what’s going on. Like no energy. Legs are just — just done.”
“Can’t get circulation,” Applegate added. “I can’t get them to stop hurting.”
The Emmy Award winner told Sigler that she had fallen into a “deep depression” after returning from a “win” vacation.
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“You just lay in a dark room watching TV and wanting it all to just go away. And that’s kind of where I’m at,” she admitted.
Applegate revealed that she had been diagnosed with MS in 2021. (Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images)
In August 2021, Applegate revealed she had been diagnosed with MS a few months earlier. Production on the last season of her hit Netflix show “Dead to Me” was halted for about five months while she began treatment.
“I got diagnosed while we were working, and I had to call everybody and be like, “I have multiple sclerosis, guys. Like, what the f—!”, she told Variety in November 2022.
“And then it was about kind of learning — all of us learning — what I was going to be capable of doing. It had to be cold, because heat is our kryptonite. Can’t work those 18-hour days, you know? It was impossible.”
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Applegate shared in 2022 that she later realized there had been warning signs of the disease for years. (REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)
During a 2022 appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” Applegate shared that filming the third and final season of “Dead to Me” was the “hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
She went on to tell Clarkson that looking back, she realized there were warning signs for years that she had MS.
“I started thinking about the last four years, and I had very small symptoms,” she said. The Emmy winner added that she thought it was important for people to know that.
“Let’s not all be hypochondriacs and run to the doctor when our leg gets weak,” Applegate said. “But it happened to me four years ago where we were on set, and I’d go like, ‘I think I’m tired, you know?’
“So it presented itself like a few years ago until it just got as bad as it did.”
Ashley Hume is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to ashley.hume@fox.com and on Twitter: @ashleyhume
