Christina Applegate announced on October 20, 2026 that her doctor told her she does not have multiple sclerosis, five years after she went public with the diagnosis and built the podcast Messy around it. She said the re-diagnosis came after she was taken off an infusion and her B cells did not change. Applegate, who has used a cane and wheelchair publicly, said she is back at square one and does not know what she has. The discussion turns on celebrity illness branding and whether the reversal will draw the same coverage as the original diagnosis.