Christina Applegate’s former co-star, David Faustino, has shared praise for the actor’s resilience after she revealed her misdiagnosis with multiple sclerosis.
Faustino, who played Applegate’s character’s younger brother on hit sitcom Married...with Children, told People that he still sees the actor “on a regular basis,” and that he is doing his best to support his longtime friend through a trying time.
Applegate, 54, was diagnosed with MS in 2021, and has been vocal about the effects of the incurable autoimmune disease over the years. However, on the October 20 episode of her podcast MeSsy, the actor announced that she found out that she did not have MS, which brought her back to “square one” with understanding her pain.
“She’s struggling to find out what’s going on and I’m just giving her the best and the most love I can through this process,” Faustino, 52, told People.
He added that Applegate is a “strong soul” who has stayed in good spirits throughout her pain.
“She’s very dry. Her humor, she keeps it going with humor,” Faustino explained. “Even in the worst of circumstances, she can still come up with a witty one-liner to zap you. And I attribute it to her humor.”
In the latest episode of the podcast Applegate co-hosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler — who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2016 — Applegate shared that she underwent testing for other conditions that have similar symptoms to MS.
“You’ve got RA [rheumatoid arthritis] and you’ve got lupus and Lyme disease and all these things that kind of can mimic MS,” she explained. “So now I’m being tested for all that stuff slowly but surely.”
Applegate went on to say that her pain has persisted and that the misdiagnosis led her to question her sense of self.
“It’s hard for me to try to shake that identity because it’s been my identity for so long,” she said before issuing a plea to listeners. “If there’s something I can be doing to feel better, because I don’t have the stigma of MS or I don’t have, you know, the criteria of that, whatever that is, please let me know. I am wanting the advice right now.”
When announcing her misdiagnosis, Applegate said that new technology had contributed to her doctors finding out that she does not have the chronic disease.
She added that she was “not happy at all” to receive the news.
“You don’t get misdiagnosed and then all of the sudden I’m better. I haven’t gotten better,” she said. “If anything, I’ve gotten worse in some ways. So I’m back at square one, that I don’t know what’s going on with me.”
