BURSTTAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Actress Christina Applegate has revealed that she was recently hospitalized with an infection that spread to both kidneys.
The "Married… with Children" and "Dead to Me" star, who is battling multiple sclerosis, shared the news in the Aug. 5 episode of her "MeSsy" podcast, which she recorded from a hospital in Los Angeles.
Applegate told co-host Jamie-Lynn Sigler ("The Sopranos") that she began to feel something was wrong during a trip to see family in Europe.
"I was not feeling good the whole time I was there," Applegate said.
The actress said she decided to check herself into a hospital after her return flight on Saturday.
"I'm gonna go, and I'm not leaving there until I have some f---ing answers," she said she recalled thinking.
Christina Applegate is pictured at the 29th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on February 26, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
The day after checking in, however, she "started getting pain that I've never felt before," which began "radiating" from her front right side to her back.
"I'm like screaming," Applegate said of the "excruciating" pain. "And they ordered me an emergency CT … and I have kidney infections."
She said her doctors also suspect the issue may stem from "something else," but Applegate didn't reveal what they told her, "because I don't want it to sound scary," she said.
At the time the podcast was recorded, Applegate wasn't sure what caused the kidney infection.
She has returned home since recording the podcast, the actress told USA Today this week.
Applegate revealed in 2021 that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic, inflammatory condition of the central nervous system affecting nearly 1 million people in the U.S. It affects the brain and spinal cord, slowing down or blocking communications between the brain and body. Most people are diagnosed from ages 20 to 50, and the cause is unknown, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.