Jamie-Lynn Sigler talks new book, says Christina Applegate is 'getting better and stronger' amid MS battle
Jamie-Lynn Sigler is sharing an update about her friend and "MeSsy" podcast co-host Christina Applegate.
While promoting her new book "And So It Is: A Memoir of Acceptance and Hope" on "Good Morning America" Monday, Sigler said Applegate is "a tough lady" amid her battle with multiple sclerosis.
"Christina has shared openly about having health issues, but she is getting better and stronger everyday," Sigler, who also has multiple sclerosis, told "GMA" co-anchor Robin Roberts. "She's amazing, we're in contact, so she's doing a lot better."
Two weeks ago, Applegate shared an Instagram post following reports about her being hospitalized, writing that "health issues are a constant for me," adding, "but I'm a strong chick and I'm getting stronger and better every day."
"I'm taking a moment to focus on my health, but I'll be back with more to say soon enough," she wrote.
With Applegate taking time to deal with her health, Sigler said the pair's "MeSsy" podcast is on hiatus for now.
The duo bonded over their MS diagnoses and launched their podcast in 2024. Sigler said she was diagnosed with MS when she was 20 years old and filming "The Sopranos," however she did not share her illness publicly until 2016.
Applegate shared her diagnosis publicly in 2021, detailing her journey with the disease at the time. In a 2022 interview with the New York Times, Applegate said that she could not "walk without a cane."
In Sigler's new memoir, the actress opens up about her journey with MS and shared how keeping her diagnosis a secret impacted her relationships, work and more.
Since sharing her story in her memoir, Sigler said she feels "brand new."
"For me, the process of writing this book was as cathartic as it gets," she said. "To face countless stories and moments in my life that I have felt such shame about, that I felt so alone in -- to finally have this reckoning and give that version of me, the validation of her experience, the love that I didn't open myself up to, the forgiveness, the grace that we all deserve -- I got so much of that in revisiting my life."
"My greatest hope is that this book is kind of like holding a mirror up to the reader and reminding them to do that for themselves," she added.
The actress ended her conversation with Roberts by saying, "What happens to us does not define us. It is opportunities to grow, it is opportunities to reflect, to come back to yourself and perspective is everything."
"Your circumstances might not change, but when you shift your perspective, your life can be so much greater," she said.
"And So It Is: A Memoir of Acceptance and Hope" is out May 5.
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