Christina Applegate contracted sapovirus—a virus transmitted through fecal-oral contact—while battling multiple sclerosis: “Other people’s feces got in my mouth and I ate it.”
Christina Applegate openly shares her dreadful experience.
The Dead to Me star vividly recounts her recent battle with sapovirus, a virus commonly transmitted through fecal-oral contact, jokingly stating that the illness caused her to “pee out of my butt for a couple of days.”
“I was disgusting,” Christina—who also struggles with multiple sclerosis—shared on the April 23 episode of her podcast, MeSsy. “I woke up at 3 in the morning on a pile of feces. Didn’t know it was happening, and having MS at 3 in the morning and trying to change the sheets, it’s not fun.”
According to Christina, her ordeal all began a few weeks ago when someone “very close” to her “missed the memo” and brought home COVID-19, causing her to contract the virus for the first time. Due to already having a weakened immune system due to MS, Christina experienced more severe symptoms, including a chest infection and rapid heartbeat.
“I was so dizzy,” she recalled to co-host Jamie-Lynn Sigler. “I was so sick. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t do anything.”
Amidst her illness, Christina underwent a stool test—which made her vomit because it was “so gross”—to find out what was wrong. Eventually, she was diagnosed with sapovirus.
“It happens when you ingest someone else’s fecal matter from your food,” said the 57-year-old woman about the virus. “Other people’s feces got in my mouth and I ate it.”
Christina believes she contracted the virus after eating takeout salad from a restaurant that would later close for unrelated reasons.
“I was sick for almost three weeks because of this,” she continued, adding sarcastically, “so that’s my fun story.”
And through dealing with sapovirus and MS, which can sometimes cause bladder control issues, Christina says she has formed some serious opinions about adult diapers.
“Here’s my thing: Why do they make it pretty for women?” noted the Anchorman alum. “Like, ‘Hey babe, you wanna play dirty in my lingerie diaper with your own urine?'”
For more candid insights into Christina’s health journey, keep reading.
Health Journey
Christina Applegate shared that she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021.
“Hi friends. A few months ago I was diagnosed with MS,” she said on her social media channel in August. “It’s been a weird journey. But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition. It’s been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going. Unless some a–hole blocks it.”
First Public Appearance
“Oh, by the way, I have a disease,” she joked during the Hollywood Walk of Fame awards ceremony in November 2022, her first public appearance since her MS diagnosis. “Didn’t you know? I’m not even wearing shoes.”
Early Symptoms
Christina believes her journey with MS actually began “six or seven years” before her 2021 diagnosis.
“I was aware, especially during the first season [of Dead to Me], we were shooting and my legs would give out,” Christina explained during a March 2024 interview on Good Morning America. “I really just dismissed it as fatigue, or I’m thirsty, or it’s the weather. Then nothing happened for months, and I didn’t pay attention to it.”
As she was filming the third and final season of the Netflix series, the actress said she was “brought to set in a wheelchair.”
“I couldn’t move that far,” she recalled, “so I had to tell everybody because I needed help.”
Making Moves
The Dead to Me star captioned this photo about her collection of canes amidst her battle with MS: “Walking sticks are now part of my new normal.”
Strong Statement
Accompanied by her daughter Sadie Grace LeNoble, Christina had a simple message for multiple sclerosis while attending the SAG Awards 2023: “F U MS.”
