CHRISTINA APPLEGATE & JAMIE-LYNN SIGLER LIVING WITH MS 'We Are Helping Each Other Through This'

AFTER LEARNING SHE HAD MS IN 2021, APPLEGATE TURNED TO SIGLER, WHO HAS LIVED WITH THE CHRONIC DISEASE FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS. THE ACTRESSES OPEN UP ABOUT THEIR POWERFUL FRIENDSHIP AND THEIR RAW AND REAL NEW PODCAST Messy

- EILEEN FINAN

It's raining in the Hollywood Hills outside Christina Applegate's home as the actress leans her head against JamieLynn Sigler's shoulder.

Gripping Sigler's hand, Applegate explains that it's been a tough few days leading up to this, her first photo shoot in four years: "The last five days I've been sobbing, going, 'I'm going to have to cancel.' I was throwing up last night, thinking about all of it. Being touched, makeup and hair, even talking about it, I get spasms. Weird positions, shoes, people, noise, climate I can't control. It all goes through my mind, and I want to go back to bed and watch Naked and Afraid." She links arms with Sigler, who's on a rare visit from her home in Austin. "I wouldn't have done it today without her." Sigler rubs her hand. “But you did it," she tells Applegate. "We did it. A lot is still possible." That optimism has been a lifeline for Applegate since the actresses' mutual friend Lance Bass put them in touch in 2021 after Applegate was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis while in the midst of filming her Netflix series Dead to Me. "If I didn't have her, I wouldn't be able to do this life thing," says Applegate, 52. For Sigler, 42, who learned she had MS more than two decades ago when she was costarring on The Sopranos, Applegate's blunt honesty and humor in the face of the disease were liberating. ("Even on an 'up' day, MS is there. It's just less sh---y," Applegate says.) Now the two are sharing their journey in a new podcast, Messy, debuting March 19. Says Sigler: "The way Christina allows me to talk about the hard stuff, I needed desperately."

You've become close friends. What clicked?