Christina Applegate reveals daughter's 'knife to the heart comment' about MS battle
Christina Applegate revealed her daughter is the reason she's 'still here and trying' after being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) - a condition that affects the brain and spinal cord. The actress, who was diagnosed with the condition in 2021, has been open about living with MS and recently shared the realities of parenting with it.
The 53-year-old Dead To Me actress recently appeared on SiriusXM's Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa podcast and discussed her changing relationship with 14-year-old daughter Sadie, who is the reason she's 'still here and trying. The star said: "I don't get up in the morning with that, I get up because of her. She's the reason I'm still here and trying."
Christina then revealed the painful comment her daughter made when they got into an argument. The actress added: " But she did say to me, and we got into a big thing the other day, and sorry Sadie, but it has to be said.
"She said, 'I missed who you were before you got sick'. 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 is such a loss. See, now I'm gonna cry. See, this is my problem. I'm either like extremely traumatic and crying, or I'm cracking myself up. So I'm never in between."
Christina shares Sadie with her husband, Martyn LeNoble, whom she married in 2013. The Married... With Children star previously appeared on Jimmy Kimmel, where she admitted that her sense of humour helps her keep going.
Jimmy said: "I learned from our text exchanges you have a very sick sense of humour," to which Christina replied: "It's how I live. It's how I keep myself okay." The show host added: "'I like it. I think that's good. I think that's the way to go for sure."
She admitted she feels like her daughter is "losing her mum" as she knew her, and reminisced about their past together when they could dance, do library work together, and be more active including picking her up from school.
The star admitted "it breaks me" as she explained she can no longer do the same things she once did effortlessly. She became emotional during the interview and said: "I'm sorry. I freak out about it every day."
Christina said there were times she would be lying in bed due to her pain.
"[My daughter will] come in the room, and if she sees that I'm laying on my side, she knows that she can't ask me to do anything," she said.
"And that breaks me, breaks me. Because I love doing stuff for my kid. I love making her food. I love bringing it to her. I love all of it, and I just can't sometimes. But I try. I try."
Last year, Christina revealed her daughter was diagnosed Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, a condition that causes abnormally large increases in heart rate upon sitting up or standing.
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