It’s been 22 years since Jamie-Lynn Sigler learned she had multiple sclerosis. In the years since being diagnosed, the former star of “The Sopranos” has taken on a host of projects including roles in theater, podcast and television while speaking out about and treating her MS. Now, her next venture will combine the two.
On March 19, Sigler's new weekly podcast "MeSsy" — which she co-hosts with Christina Applegate, who also has MS — will debut.
The two actors first connected in 2021, when Applegate was diagnosed with MS. “I wanted to give her tools and things that I’ve learned that have helped me,” Sigler told People about their friendship.
Applegate recalled to the magazine: “We would talk on the phone for two hours, and we’d be laughing and crying, and we were like, ‘This is helping us. Let’s record this. Let’s do it.’”
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The podcast promises vulnerable conversations between the co-hosts and their roster of guests, which includes friends, co-stars and “the people (who) keep them going through the messiness of life.”
While Sigler initially kept quiet about her diagnosis — she revealed it 15 years after the fact — she’s now an MS advocate, candid about the toll it’s taken on her and her loved ones. Here’s everything to know about Sigler’s MS journey.
Entertainment News
What illness does Jamie-Lynn Sigler have?
Sigler has multiple sclerosis, a disease in which the immune system attacks the central nervous system, which includes the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. These attacks damage the protective coverings surrounding the nerve fibers called myelin, which causes the brain to struggle to communicate with the rest of the body, per the Mayo Clinic.
Experts aren’t sure what causes MS, nor is there a cure for it. But they do know MS looks different in every person. “Some people with severe MS may lose the ability to walk independently or ambulate at all,” the Mayo Clinic explains. “Other individuals may experience long periods of remission without any new symptoms depending on the type of MS they have.”
Common symptoms include numbness in the limbs, tingling, shock-like sensations in the neck, inability to walk, blurry vision, double vision, loss of vision, vertigo, fatigue, slurred speech and cognitive problems, per the Mayo Clinic.
When was Jamie-Lynn Sigler diagnosed with MS?
Jamie-Lynn Sigler was diagnosed with MS about 22 years ago, when she was 20 years old. However, she didn't publicly reveal her diagnosis for 15 years, until 2016.
Back in 2002, she had just wrapped shooting an episode of “The Sopranos” when she noticed her leg felt heavy. “It was that feeling right before you get pins and needles — that weird tingling, like your legs are asleep,” Sigler told WebMD.
Worried the Lyme disease she was diagnosed with a year prior had returned, her parents took her to the hospital, where she had an MRI and spinal tap. The following day, her doctor said she had MS.
“It was probably the most surreal moment of my life,” Sigler recalled in a 2019 Shondland essay. “I knew nothing about the disease, to be honest. I fortunately had a doctor who told me right away that as long as I stayed on treatment, there was no reason I couldn’t live a full life.”
She initially felt embarrassed when she received her diagnosis, Sigler revealed on TODAY in 2016, mainly because of her inability to control the condition. “With something like MS, you lose control over things that you once had, and it’s slowly taken away from you, and that can chip away at your self worth and you can feel less than and a lot of negative feelings,” she said.
But when she shared her diagnosis, she began a journey of "self-reflection and self-acceptance," she told People in November 2023.
“It was a big moment for me," she said. “I grew up with this idea that people are only going to be attracted to you when you’re perfect, and it’s quite the opposite. MS gave me my superpower, which is vulnerability, because the more raw and real and open I am — and this has forced me to be that — the more beautiful connections are.”
What has Jamie-Lynn Sigler said about her MS symptoms?
When Sigler was first diagnosed, her symptoms were few and manageable, and so she kept acting, continuing her role on “The Sopranos,” she told WebMD. She even landed her dream role as Belle in Broadway’s "Beauty and the Beast."
But around the time of her 2005 divorce from her first husband, A.J. Discala, Sigler began experiencing incontinence and difficulty balancing, particularly on her right side, she told WebMD. When she confided in an “industry professional,” they advised her to keep her diagnosis a secret, Sigler told TODAY, so she did. As her symptoms developed, Sigler concealed the illness as best she could and “struggled silently,” as she once described it in a 2019 essay.
“(MS has) definitely taken a lot from me: my ability to run, dance, jump, wear high heels,” she wrote. At the time, she shared she had a slight limp and needed medication to help control her bladder.
Since going public with her diagnosis, Sigler’s opened up about how she manages these symptoms and how she's doing now.
In the November interview with People, she said she can "can still accomplish the things that I want to do, whether it be at work or at home," even though she has trouble walking for long periods and cannot run.
When she and her husband, Cutter Dykstra, take their two sons to sports practices, she pushes a wagon that both holds her belongings and gives her something to lean on as she walks, she told the outlet. And when she landed a role on ABC’s “Big Sky,” production agreed to park her trailer closer to set to lessen her commute and made additional accommodations so she could focus on her job.
“I’m uncomfortable 24/7,” Sigler said. “I’m always a little stiff, I’m always a little achy. But I’ve been this way for so long, it’s my normal.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
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