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Health · North America

Christina Applegate says doctor told her MS diagnosis was mistaken

Christina Applegate said a doctor told her she had been misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis after she believed she had the condition for more than five years. She said she still does not know what is causing her worsening health issues and is seeking an explanation.

AI-assisted synthesis · Based on 6 outlets' reporting · Article text read from 3 of 6 outletsHow it's made

View timeline · 5 entries
6 outlets2 regionsLatest reporting 3 min read
Coverage: MixedL 0 · C 3 · R 2 · 1 unrated
File photo
Photo: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

What happened

Key facts

  • Christina Applegate said a doctor told her she had been misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis (per New York Post, CNA, USA Today).
  • Applegate said she believed she had multiple sclerosis for more than five years (per New York Post).
  • Applegate said she does not know what is causing her health issues and feels she is back at square one (per New York Post, CNA).
  • Applegate described her health issues as worsening and said she was unhappy to learn she did not have multiple sclerosis (per New York Post).
  • Applegate said her doctors were beginning an online investigation into what had been happening to her since 2021 (per New York Post, CNA).
  • Applegate said she continues to experience symptoms associated with multiple sclerosis and cannot walk from her car to a doctor's office (per CNA).
  • Applegate said she uses a wheelchair to get from her car to a doctor's office (per CNA).
  • Applegate said the news was confusing and that she felt she had let people down after becoming an advocate for people with multiple sclerosis (per CNA).

The brief

Christina Applegate says a doctor told her she had been misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis, leaving her without an explanation for health problems she says are worsening. She had believed she had MS for more than five years and described the news as a return to “square one.”

Applegate discussed the diagnosis on her podcast, “MeSsy.” She said she was unhappy to learn she did not have MS and still does not know what is causing her symptoms. The New York Post reported that she and her doctors were beginning an online investigation into what had been happening to her since 2021. The account in CNA adds detail about the effect of her symptoms on daily mobility: Applegate said she cannot walk from her car to a doctor’s office and uses a wheelchair to get there. She also said she continues to experience symptoms associated with MS. The new information about the diagnosis therefore has not, in her account, resolved her health problems. CNA reported that Applegate first publicly announced her MS diagnosis in 2021. It also described her as having spoken publicly about the condition for years. Applegate said the reversal was confusing and that she felt she had let people down after becoming an advocate for people with MS. Her comments convey the personal consequence of a diagnosis she had shared publicly: uncertainty about her own health alongside concern about those who had followed her account. The New York Post quoted Dr. Elena Grebenciucova, an MS and neuroimmunology physician at Northwestern Medicine, saying that up to one in five patients diagnosed with MS may instead have another condition. That general estimate offers context for the possibility of a mistaken diagnosis, but it does not identify what condition, if any, explains Applegate’s symptoms. The outlets emphasize different aspects of the account. The New York Post highlights Applegate’s uncertainty, worsening health issues and the doctors’ planned investigation; CNA foregrounds her ongoing symptoms, wheelchair use and the emotional effect of the diagnostic reversal. USA Today and Fox News headlines also report that Applegate said she was misdiagnosed, while Us Weekly’s headline points to an investigation into her health. Those headlines corroborate the central news but do not add further details about her medical condition. The immediate next step described by Applegate is the investigation with her doctors into the health problems she says have continued since 2021. Its purpose, as she characterized it, is to find out what has been happening; the account does not name a new diagnosis or say what the investigation has found.

Why it matters

  • Applegate says the diagnostic reversal has left her without an explanation for worsening health problems after more than five years believing she had MS.
  • She says she cannot walk from her car to a doctor’s office and uses a wheelchair, making mobility a concrete ongoing cost of her symptoms.
  • Applegate said she felt she had let people down after becoming an advocate for people with MS, illustrating the personal stakes of publicly sharing a diagnosis that a doctor later disputed.
  • Dr. Elena Grebenciucova said up to 1 in 5 people diagnosed with MS may instead have another condition, underscoring why identifying an accurate explanation matters.

What to watch next

  • Whether Applegate’s doctors identify an explanation through the online investigation she said they were beginning.
  • Whether Applegate shares a new diagnosis or other findings from the investigation.
  • Whether Applegate’s reported symptoms or mobility change as the investigation proceeds.

How it's being covered

Coverage analysisShow details
6 source articles · 6 unique outlets
Outlet political mix: Mixed· 3 Center · 2 Right · 1 unrated
Where the outlets are based: US/Canada 83% · Asia 17%
Outlet political mix
Mixed
Left
Center
Right
0 outlets
3 outlets
2 outlets
The marker shows coverage balance: each unique outlet counts once. 1 unrated outlet is not included.
Geography
Where the outlets covering this story are based.
6 unique outletsDominant coverage: US/Canada
Coverage imbalance
  • Coverage is currently concentrated among outlets based in US/Canada (5 of 6 geographically-identified sources).
How we measure coverage

How outlets' accounts compare

1 framing difference · 3 uncorroborated claims · 2 information gaps
The reports repeat the same account with different emphasis; its central claims are not independently confirmed in the reporting Updat3 read.Compared across 3 reports whose article text Updat3 read; 3 other outlets were checked by headline only.
Framing / emphasis differences
Sources emphasise different angles, actors or consequences of the same reporting.
  • The New York Post emphasizes Applegate’s worsening health issues, uncertainty and planned investigation; CNA emphasizes her continuing symptoms, wheelchair use and feelings that she had let people down.
Updat3: These are differences of emphasis, not disputes about what is reported. They do not show that the reported claims are true.
One-sided or uncorroborated claims
Claims that come from one party or one source family and are not independently corroborated.
  • The misdiagnosis is reported as what Applegate says her doctor told her; the sources do not provide a statement from that doctor.
  • Applegate said she was “back at square one” and did not know what was causing her health issues.
  • Dr. Elena Grebenciucova said up to 1 in 5 patients diagnosed with MS may instead have another condition.
Updat3: Not independently corroborated yet — treat as a claim, not an established fact.
Not established by the reporting
Information the available reporting does not contain or confirm. This is a gap, not a disagreement.
  • The sources do not identify what condition, if any, accounts for Applegate’s symptoms after the MS diagnosis was reversed.
  • The cause of Applegate’s ongoing symptoms remains unidentified in her account.
Updat3: Updat3 cannot conclude anything about this from the current sources.

Timeline

Developments from this story's sources, dated background we compiled and fact-checked, and our earlier coverage. Each row says which.
  1. She announced that diagnosis in August 2008 and later said she had undergone a double mastectomy.
    Background · from our historical context
  2. Christina Applegate announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  3. An international panel published revised McDonald criteria for diagnosing multiple sclerosis.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  4. Christina Applegate publicly disclosed her multiple sclerosis diagnosis on August 10, 2021, writing that she had been diagnosed months earlier.
    Background · from our historical context
  5. In November 2022, she discussed the condition in interviews while promoting the third and final season of Netflix’s *Dead to Me*, which had been filmed after her diagnosis.
    Background · from our historical context

How we got here

Christina Applegate publicly disclosed her multiple sclerosis diagnosis on August 10, 2021, writing that she had been diagnosed months earlier. In November 2022, she discussed the condition in interviews while promoting the third and final season of Netflix’s *Dead to Me*, which had been filmed after her diagnosis.

At the 2023 Screen Actors Guild Awards, Applegate used a cane and received a standing ovation; she had also spoken publicly about the physical challenges of completing the series. The 2017 revisions to the McDonald criteria set out how clinicians can use evidence such as MRI findings and clinical episodes to diagnose MS and distinguish it from other conditions.

Original sources

5 of 6 articles · US/Canada · Show all

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