NEED TO KNOW
Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler candidly share the “harsh reality” their kids are going through amid their MS diagnosis
The Dead to Me actress shares her daughter Sadie with her husband Martyn LeNoble
The Neighbor in the Window star is a mother of two boys, Jack and Beau, who she shares with her husband Cutter Dykstra
Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler candidly opened up about how their children are navigating their moms’ experience with multiple sclerosis.
On the Tuesday, Aug. 26 episode of the MeSsy podcast, the Dead to Me actress, 53, and The Neighbor in the Window star, 44, talked about how their kids are impacted by their diagnosis.
Sigler shared that she was recently watching the 1994 movie Forrest Gump with her son Beau, 11, for the first time and recalled a moment after the movie when he “buried his head in my chest and just started sobbing.”
“And I was like, ‘Oh, buddy. What’s the matter?’ And he was like, ‘I hate how much you suffer. I hate watching you be sick. I don’t like that this is happening to you.’ And I never thought about that.”
“Beau and I [have] like a very open relationship, and I feel like I’ve set the stage for him to … express himself or talk about anything with me,” continued Sigler, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) when she was 20 years old.
“I guess I just took for granted that he’s only known me with MS, so that he’s just kind of accepted that this is my life. And I didn’t think about it being that hard for him, the uncertainty of it, and the obvious comparisons that he now has of having a mother with a disability versus one that doesn’t. And it was eye-opening and heartbreaking.”
John Shearer/Getty
Christina Applegate and daughter Sadie LeNoble
Sigler, who shares sons Jack, 7, and Beau with her husband, Cutter Dykstra, went on to say that she felt “really guilty” that she didn’t think about how he must have been feeling.
“I was feeling really guilty that I didn’t ever consider that this would be so difficult for him,” she said. “I’m so used to dealing with my struggle and my pushing through it daily. I guess I just didn’t think about him noticing it or clocking it or caring about it.”
“I think we assume just our kids are selfish, and … I just didn’t anticipate that conversation, and it [has] really stuck with me,” Sigler added.
Applegate, who became a parent with her husband Martyn LeNoble in 2011, shared that her daughter Sadie, 14, has also been strongly impacted by her MS diagnosis. The loving mom said that she believes it has “broken her” and is “hurting her” more now that she’s getting older.
“In my situation, Sadie only knew me as healthy and a runner and a Pelotoner and a dancer — and she only knew that,” she explained. “So, then when this came about [in] 2021, she was like stoic about it.”
“Now, I see her look at me when I’m in bed and can’t quite move, or [when] I wanna go say goodnight to her in her room, but I can’t quite get down the hallway [and] for whatever reason that my legs aren’t working that day,” she continued. “It’s broken her.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Applegate, who was diagnosed with MS in June 2021, added, “It was like losing the mom she had to this f—— thing. And the more she’s gotten older now, I think the more it’s hurting her.”
Sigler added that another layer that the kids are dealing with is that MS isn’t a diagnosis that they can fight and eventually overcome, describing that as a “harsh reality” for their children.
“She’s realizing that this is something that you are gonna be living with. Like, it’s not like something that came and you fought it and you got over it. You took a medication and it’s gone,” she said. “Like, a progressive, chronic, degenerative — however you wanna label it, whatever the, you know, all the things about MS. It’s like a very harsh reality for our children.”
Read the original article on People
