"I love reality TV because they freak me out that they walk this earth acting like that," Applegate joked
Christina Applegate has a relatable answer as to what gets her through hard days.
The Dead to Me star, 52, appeared on James Corden's SiriusXM show This Life of Mine to discuss living with multiple sclerosis. When Corden questioned if music has been helpful in moving through challenging moments, she confessed that she actually has another outlet she prefers.
"I find reality television very useful, that's kind of it for me," she said. "Anyone who knows me well knows that it's on 24/7 in my room, because I don't leave my room very often. I know that sounds really depressing but it's kind of like, I need to sleep sometimes."
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As for what shows are her go-tos, Applegate said "everything" reality does the trick for her.
"Give me any of it," she joked. "Give me a Vanderpump [Rules], give me a Below Deck, give me a [Real] Housewife, even give me Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsay -- I'll watch like nine seasons of that in like two days."
"I love watching the imperfections of real people, really," she continued. "Like wow, those people exist, I love that. That's why I love reality TV because they freak me out that they walk this earth acting like that."
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The actress was diagnosed with MS back in 2021 after "feeling ill for so long," she told Corden. When she finally got the diagnosis, she said she was glad to know what was wrong but hearing it was MS was difficult to wrap her around around.
"For years and years and years, I'd have some weird things like balance issues, speech issues, my hands would shake sometimes," she shared. "And I remember playing tennis, I played tennis a couple times a week, and my knee would go out. It was like, 'Oh, I'm dehydrated. It's too hot out. Whatever.'"
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Applegate said in January 2021, right before Dead to Me was set to shoot its final season, she noticed her toes would go numb and she would mistake that feeling for muscle spasms from hiking. When filming began, she revealed she couldn't "even walk up the steps to my trailer."
"After some tests, they did an MRI in my brain and it was a Monday and we were at work and my doctor said, 'I really need to get on a Zoom with you to go over your MRI results,'" she recalled. "I remember saying to [crew], 'I have to leave. I have to go home and be there at seven.' And they're like, 'Well, we have like one more scene to do,' and I just said, 'I can't. I gotta go home.'"
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When she got on the Zoom call with her doctor, Applegate said she could tell she was about to get bad news.
"[The doctor] just looked at me and he goes, 'I'm so sorry,' and I was like, 'What do you mean?'" she said. "He goes, 'Here's a picture of your brain. Sorry,' and there's like 30 lesions all over my brain, and I went, 'No, please don't tell me this. Please don't tell me this.'"
Panicking, the Anchorman alum said she immediately knew she had to tell Dead to Me production because her diagnosis would impact her role in the show. When she called them, she didn't quite have all the words.
"I said, 'You guys, it's f---ing MS,'" she told Corden. "And they're like, 'Okay, we're shutting down for the week.' That was it. And then we were just trying to figure out how to film and stuff, and we did. I mean, we finished it. It took us a long time, but we finished it."
"I remember that moment like it was yesterday," she concluded.