Christina Applegate poses with her star during her Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony at Hollywood Walk Of Fame in November 2022. Photo / Getty Images
Christina Applegate poses with her star during her Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony at Hollywood Walk Of Fame in November 2022. Photo / Getty Images
Christina Applegate is frightened to take showers since being diagnosedwith multiple sclerosis (MS).
The 51-year-old Dead To Me actress revealed she was diagnosed with the degenerative neurological condition last year while she was filming the final series of the hit Netflix show and she’s now opened up about how thedisorder affects her everyday life - revealing just getting in the shower can be a daunting experience.
She told Vanity Fair magazine: “With the disease of MS, it’s never a good day. You just have little s****y days. People are like: ‘Well, why don’t you take more showers?’
”Well, because getting in the shower is frightening. You can fall, you can slip, your legs can buckle. Especially because I have a glass shower. It’s frightening to me to get in there.”
She went on to explain many everyday tasks have become difficult for her - including going up and down the stairs in her home.
Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini in season 3 of Dead to Me. Photo / Netflix
Christina added: “There are just certain things that people take for granted in their lives that I took for granted. Going down the stairs, carrying things - you can’t do that anymore. It f***ing sucks.
“I can still drive my car short distances. I can bring up food to my kid. Up, never down ...
”[It affects my balance] and gravity can just pull you down and take everything down with you.”
However, she’s found a novel way of keeping safe on the stairs. She added: “So we have this little thing at the top of the stairs that we call ‘purgatory’. So if anyone’s done with anything upstairs, we put it in purgatory so one of my able friends can bring it downstairs ...
“Christina explained she gets help around the house from a friend who lives with her during the week and helps take care of the actress’ 12-year-old daughter Sadie, while a caretaker comes in at weekends.
The Sweetest Thing actress added that she doesn’t want to have too many visitors because she finds it too tiring to be around a lot of people.
She explained: “It’s exhausting. Imagine just being in a crowd of people and how loud that is. It’s like 5000 times louder for anyone who has lesions on their brains.”
