- Content: Christina Applegate, Jamie-Lynn Sigler Say MS ‘Brought Us Together’
By Movieguide® Contributor
When Christina Applegate was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021, a friend told her she should reach out to actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler.
The DEAD TO ME star is glad she did.
“Sigler had been living with the disease for two decades, so when Applegate got in touch, THE SOPRANOS actress, who lives in Austin, was ready to help,” PEOPLE reported.
Movieguide® previously reported about the uncertainty of Applegate’s career after her diagnosis:
Last fall, Applegate received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was there she told Variety TV, “Thank you so much for being so understanding as I journey through this new part of my life. Not knowing if I’m gonna continue on to – to act anymore. I don’t know if I can, I’d love to. I do miss it. I miss it so much. I just don’t know. As a daily struggle to walk and to kind of move, and stuff.
“We don’t know what my future as an actress is going to be,” she added. “How can I handle it? How can I go onto a set and call the shots of what I need as far as my boundaries, physically?”
Sigler told PEOPLE, “MS brought us together,” and “I wanted to give her tools and things that I’ve learned that have helped me.”
They get along splendidly because they “haven’t stopped talking since,” Applegate said.
“The way that Christina disarms me and allows me to talk about the hard stuff, I needed desperately,” Sigler said.
Sigler previously told PEOPLE that her condition opened up a different side of her, and she’s grateful for it.
“I grew up with this idea that people are only going to be attracted to you when you’re perfect, and it’s quite the opposite,” she said. “MS gave me my superpower, which is vulnerability, because the more raw and real and open I am — and this has forced me to be that — the more beautiful connections are.”
The duo thought that others might like to hear their “raw” and “hilarious” conversations, so they started a podcast called MeSsy.
“We would talk on the phone for two hours, and we’d be laughing and crying and we were like, ‘This is helping us. Let’s record this. Let’s do it,'” Applegate said.
The women say the podcast isn’t just about MS but broadly about how to get through tough things.
“It’s not about the specific experience we’re having,” Sigler said. “It’s us facing something hard and it’s about figuring out how to still push through. I’ve never been more … nervous isn’t the word, but like a good anxious about any project I’ve ever put out more than this, because I care so deeply about it. We are sharing the deepest parts of ourselves.”
The first episode of the MeSsy podcast will be available on March 19. Future episodes will feature insight from other celebrities, such as Martin Short and Edie Falco.
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