'Dead to Me' star Christina Applegate has multiple sclerosis: 'It's been a tough road'

Christina Applegate has announced that she has multiple sclerosis, describing her diagnosis as a “tough road.”

The Emmy Award-winning actress, 49, said in a tweet on Monday that she was diagnosed “a few months ago.”

“It’s been a strange journey. But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition,” wrote Applegate. “It’s been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going.”

She added in a later post: “Now I ask for privacy. As I go through this thing.”

Multiple sclerosis – also known as MS – affects the nervous system and often results in progressive physical and cognitive decline.

More than 2.3 million people have a diagnosis of MS worldwide, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in the US. Nearly 1 million people over the age of 18 live with a diagnosis of MS in the US, the nonprofit organisation adds.

Applegate has previously discussed her 2008 battle with breast cancer, after which she had a double mastectomy, as well as her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed.

"My decision, after looking at all the treatment plans that were possibilities for me, the only one that seemed the most logical and the one that was going to work for me was to have a bilateral mastectomy," Applegate said on Good Morning America in 2009.

"Sometimes, you know, I cry. And sometimes I scream. And I get really angry. And I get really upset, you know, into wallowing in self-pity sometimes. And I think that it's all part of the healing," she added.

Then in 2017, the actress revealed that she had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed.

"My cousin passed away from ovarian cancer in 2008. I could prevent that. That’s how I’ve taken control of everything. It’s a relief. That’s one other thing off the table," she told the Today show.

Applegate is known for her roles in Married … with Children and the Netflix show Dead to Me, for which she received an Emmy nomination in 2018.

She won an Emmy in 2003 for a guest spot on Friends and has a Tony Award nomination for the musical Sweet Charity. Her films include The Sweetest Thing, Anchorman, Hall Pass and Bad Moms.

Applegate married musician Martyn LeNoble in 2013. Their daughter, Sadie Grace, was born in 2011.

– Additional reporting by AP