Christina Applegate is done sugarcoating multiple sclerosis. The actress, diagnosed in 2021, has launched Next in MS, an online platform where those affected by the disease can share the unvarnished truth—”the good, the bad, the ugly, the in-betweens, the diapers, whatever it is,” she says.
In a Super Bowl ad for the site, Applegate delivered her review of MS with characteristic bluntness: “Zero stars. Would not recommend. It sucks! It suuuucks.”
The 54-year-old partners with pharmaceutical company TG Therapeutics on the venture, but the tone is distinctly hers. For years, she has been open about her struggles on MeSsy, the podcast she hosts with fellow MS warrior Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Sigler, diagnosed more than two decades ago, has been her lifeline. “If I didn’t have her, I wouldn’t be able to do this life thing,” Applegate told PEOPLE.
Now she wants to extend that lifeline. The platform invites others to speak openly about a disease that often isolates and silences. “Together hopefully we can reach more members of the MS community, cut through the noise and talk openly about the truths of living with MS—the challenging ones and the hopeful ones too,” she says.
Applegate’s memoir, You With the Sad Eyes, arrives March 3. On the new site, she promises to share more of what she has learned.
No stars. Would not recommend. But she is here, speaking anyway—and inviting everyone else to do the same.
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