Jamie-Lynn Sigler is giving an update on her MeSsy podcast co-host Christina Applegate after the latter was reportedly hospitalized last month.
Sigler announced on March 31 that she and Applegate were going to be taking a “few-week hiatus” from their podcast, in which they talk about navigating the messiness of life, particularly in regard to their respective multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnoses. Weeks later, TMZ reported that Applegate had been hospitalized in Los Angeles since late March.
“I have no comment on whether she is in the hospital or what her medical treatments are,” Applegate’s rep said in a statement to TMZ at the time. “She’s had a long history of complicated medical conditions that she has been refreshingly open about, as evidenced in her memoir and on her podcast.”
Less than a week after the news broke, Applegate returned to social media with a message for her supporters. “Thank you for the outpouring of love and well wishes,” she wrote on Instagram. “Health issues are a constant for me, but I’m a strong chick and I’m getting stronger and better every day. I’m taking a moment to focus on my health, but I’ll be back with more to say soon enough.”
When Sigler appeared on Tuesday night’s (May 5) episode of Watch What Happens Live to promote her new memoir And So It Is…, she shared that her friend was “doing better.”
“Well, she’s talked openly about having to be in and out of the hospital for different things, but she’s doing better, she’s getting stronger, she’s doing well,” Sigler told host Andy Cohen.
The Sopranos star said their podcast has been “helpful” for the two women as they each navigate MS. “It’s really a chance for her and I to speak openly and honestly about what we’re dealing with,” Sigler said. “Sometimes, when you get very specific about what you’re going through, it becomes universal because we’re all just trying our best.”
Sigler also opened up about receiving her MS diagnosis at 20 years old while she was still filming The Sopranos, noting that star James Gandolfini was the only one in the cast who knew what she was going through.
“He was very much like a father figure to me. I think he couldn’t help but feel protective of me,” she said. “I was hiding so many secrets. I had the MS diagnosis, I was going through a divorce, I felt such shame and such fear about my life and, like any wonderful man would, he picked up on that, and pulled me aside, and asked me what was going on. I felt safe enough to share, and he was the only one who knew what was going on for a really long time.”
Watch What Happens Live airs Sunday through Thursday at 10 p.m. ET on Bravo. New episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.