Christina Applegate Says Trash TV Got Her Through Her MS Treatments

The healing power of Bravo cannot be underestimated.

Christina Applegate is opening up about healing and an unorthodox distraction that got her through her multiple sclerosis treatments. During an appearance on SiriusXM’s “This Life of Mine with James Corden" Applegate shared that she watched a lot of reality TV when she was resting and healing up, which she insists isn't as sad as it sounds. Speaking to Corden about getting through some tough days, she noted that it was just one way to add some levity and life to her day-to-day routines.

"I find reality television very useful," she said. "Anyone who knows me well knows that it's on 24/7 in my room because I don't leave my room very often. I know that sounds really depressing, but it's kind of like I just need to sleep sometimes."

When Corden asked her which shows she liked to have queued up, Applegate didn't hold back, giving a full rundown of all her heavy hitters, which proved that the star has range (and taste).

"Reality TV. Everything. Give me any of it. Give me a Vanderpump, give me a Below Deck, give me a housewife. Even give me like Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsay," she explained. "I'll watch like nine seasons of that in like two days. I love watching, the imperfections of real people really like, wow. Those people exist. I love that. That's why I love reality TV, because they freak me out that they walk this earth acting like that."

Applegate also shared the experience of not understanding what she was dealing with at first, thinking that all of her symptoms were anything but MS. As she recalled a call with her doctor, she told the host that the memory of that moment is still so vivid.

"For years and years and years, I'd have like some weird things like balance issues, speech issues. My hands would shake sometimes and I remember like playing tennis, like I played tennis a couple times a week and my knee would go out. It was like, 'Oh, I'm dehydrated. It's too hot out. Whatever,'" she explained to Corden. January of 2021, when my mom was diagnosed right before Christmas with cancer, I noticed that my toes got numb and I ignored it and I still was hiking and then I'd be like, 'Whoa, that's...hmm. That's a weird muscle spasm.'"

To compound on all the worrying that she was doing, she was also filming the last season of her show, Dead To Me, and didn't want to let down the cast and crew as she was grappling with her own health issues.

"Things just started to get weirder and weirder and before I knew it, we were about to start shooting the last season of Dead To Me, and by this time I was like, 'You guys, I can't even walk up the steps to my trailer,'" she said. "After some tests, they did an MRI in my brain and it was a Monday and we were at work and my doctor said, 'I really need to get on a Zoom with you to go over your MRI results,' and I remember saying to them, 'I have to leave. I have to go home and be there at 7,' and they're like, 'Well, we have like one more scene to do,' and I just said, 'I can't. I gotta go home,' and I opened up my Zoom and there he was and he just looked at me and he goes, 'I'm so sorry,' and I was like, 'What do you mean?' and he goes, 'Here's a picture of your brain. Sorry,' and there's like 30 lesions all over my brain."

"I went, 'No, please don't tell me this. Please don't tell me this.' I had to call production. I said, 'You guys, it's fucking MS,' and they're like, 'Okay, we're shutting down for the week,'" she finished. "That was it, and then we were just trying to figure out how to film and stuff and we did. I mean, we finished it. It took us a long time, but we finished it. But yeah, I remember that moment like it was yesterday."

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