'Like losing her mum': Christina Applegate opens up about impact of multiple sclerosis diagnosis on daughter Sadie
There is no doubt that living with an incurable disease is hard not just on the sufferer but also their families.
Now fellow actresses and multiple sclerosis (MS) sufferers Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler have opened up about the toll the disease has taken on their children.
The pair, who talk about their battle with the disease in their MeSsy podcast, each relayed heartbreaking examples of how it had affected their children, with Applegate, 53, saying that for daughter Sadie, it was like "losing her mum".
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Christina Applegate has revealed the toll of her MS diagnosis on her teenage daughter Sadie. Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag
Applegate, who now walks with a cane, and Sigler have both been vocal about the impact of the chronic disease, which causes the body's own immune system to attack myelin – the fatty material around the nerves, resulting in a range of symptoms including pain and the loss of motor function, sensation, vision, thinking and memory, with varying degrees.
Sufferers are also prone to attacks while at other times their symptoms might be stable.
While Sigler has been living with the disease since she was 20, Applegate's diagnosis came in 2021 when she was starring in the hit TV show Dead to Me.
As a result, Sigler said her two sons, Beau, 11, and Jack, seven, had always known her with MS, while Applegate said daughter Sadie, 14, had watched her decline.
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Applegate now uses a cane. Variety via Getty Images
Sadie was 11 when her mother was diagnosed, and Applegate said she was at first stoic.
"In my situation, Sadie only knew me as healthy and a runner and a Pelotoner and a dancer – she only knew that," Applegate said during the podcast, per People.
"Now, I see her look at me when I'm in bed and can't quite move, or [when] I wanna go say goodnight to her in her room, but I can't quite get down the hallway [and] for whatever reason that my legs aren't working that day and it's broken her.
"It was like losing the mum she had to this f---ing thing. And the more she's gotten older now, I think the more it's hurting her."
Meanwhile, Sigler, 42, who starred in the TV hit The Sopranos and once credited her late co-star James Gandolfini for helping her hide her condition on set, said she "took for granted" that her eldest son had only known her with MS and thought it hadn't affected him until they recently watched the film Forrest Gump together.
Applegate is known for starring in numerous hit TV shows and movies. Penske Media via Getty Images
"He was like, 'I hate how much you suffer';" said Jamie-Lynn Sigler of son Beau. Instagram/ Jamie-Lynn Sigler
In the film, the character Jenny, then a mother of a little boy, battles an unnamed illness and eventually dies.
Sigler said that after watching the film, Beau "buried his head in my chest and just started sobbing".
"He was like, 'I hate how much you suffer. I hate watching you be sick. I don't like that this is happening to you'. And I never thought about that," she said.
"I guess I just took for granted that he's only known me with MS, so that he's just kind of accepted that this is my life.
"And I didn't think about it being that hard for him, the uncertainty of it, and the obvious comparisons that he now has of having a mother with a disability versus one that doesn't.
"And it was eye-opening and heartbreaking."
Jamie-Lynn Sigler reveals she had a near-death experience after an undisclosed surgery. Instagram
She added she was left "feeling really guilty that I didn't ever consider that this would be so difficult for him".
"I'm so used to dealing with my struggle and my pushing through it daily. I guess I just didn't think about him noticing it or clocking it or caring about it," she said.
"I think we assume our kids are selfish, and... I just didn't anticipate that conversation, and it [has] really stuck with me."
It is not the first time Applegate, 53, has spoken about Sadie's reaction to the disease.
She revealed recently on the Let's Talk Off Camera podcast that the teen had made a hurtful comment.
"We got into a big thing the other day – and sorry Sadie, but it has to be said – she said, 'I miss who you were before you got sick'," the actress told host Kelly Ripa.
"That is just like a knife to the heart because I miss who I was before I got sick too, very much so, every day of my life. It's such a loss."
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