Christina Applegate Shares How 'I Lay in Bed Screaming' from MS Pain

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

Christina Applegateshared a raw look at the physical side of multiple sclerosis, talking about how the disease can often leave her “screaming” in pain.

“I lay in bed screaming — like, the sharp pains, the ache, that squeezing,” theDead to Meactress said, revealing that her symptoms have progressed during the Nov. 5 episode ofMeSsy, the podcast she cohosts withJamie-Lynn Sigler,who also has MS.

On the episode, the twosome spoke with Rory Kandel, the owner ofRory’s Bakehouse, who shared that her MS is also “manifesting as pain.”

“It feels like I have knives in my stomach,” Kandel said. “Like, I’ll be laying in bed, and I wake up, and I physically can’t turn from side to side.”

Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler.John Russo

John Russo

“It’s the worst,” said Applegate, who wasdiagnosed with multiple sclerosisin 2021. TheCleveland Clinicexplains that the progressive disease “damages the protective cover around nerves called myelin in your central nervous system. It can cause muscle weakness, vision changes, numbness and memory issues.”

“Do you feel like that?” Kandel asked, prompting Applegate to reply, “Every single day of my life.”

“But we look fine,” Kandel said.

“Because it’s the beauty of the invisible disease,” Applegate said.

Rory’s Bakehouse owner Rory Kandel.Rory’s Bakehouse/Instagram

Rory’s Bakehouse/Instagram

TheMarried…with Childrenalum shared that depending on her pain levels, “I just lay in bed all the time. I mean, I worked for almost 50 years, so I’m like, I’m kind of okay with it.”

Getting out of bed in the morning can be so painful that Applegate compared it to the “floor is lava. The floor is lava.”

“It looks like somebody put a hot fire poker up my a—hole,” Sigler said about those first steps of the day.

“I put my feet on the ground and they’re hurting, like, extraordinarily bad to the touch," said Applegate. “I was like, yep. Gonna get back in my bed and pee in my diaper because I don’t feel like walking all the way to the damn bathroom,” she said, adding quickly, “I actually don’t lay here and pee in my bed diaper. That’s just a joke.”

“But it’s like it’s so freaking painful and so hard and so awkward.”

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source: people.com