- Christina Applegate hit back at a nasty comment about her appearance at the Critics' Choice Awards.
- Sharing the message on Twitter, the actor wrote: "What is wrong with people. By the way, I laughed."
Christina Applegate has responded to a troll who claimed that her changing appearance is due to a "bad plastic surgeon" rather than the fact that she has multiple sclerosis.
The actor — who was diagnosed with the chronic condition in 2021 — attended the Critics' Choice Awards on Sunday as she was nominated for best actress in a comedy series for her performance as Jen Harding in Netflix's "Dead to Me."
In the days after the ceremony, Applegate said she looked at online comments below an article by People about her appearance and decided to reach out to one mean commenter in particular.
"Sooooo I made the unfortunate decision to look at some comments on an article from people mag about me and my kids at the CCA," Applegate tweeted on Tuesday. "Of course I told her that it wasn't nice. This was her reply."
Below the tweet was a screenshot of the messages that the anonymous person wrote after Applegate confronted them. Instead of apologizing, the individual just doubled down on their unkind comments.
—christina applegate (@1capplegate) January 17, 2023
One message said: "MS didn't make you look that way a plastic surgeon did. And you are a scammer and are notChrist a Applegate."
They added in a second message: "And a bad plastic surgeon at that."
The 51-year-old TV star ended her response: "What is wrong with people. By the way, I laughed."
Ahead of the ceremony on Sunday, Applegate tweeted that she was "nervous" but "grateful" to be attending her first awards show since her MS diagnosis.
"So this Sunday will be the first awards show I have been to since 2019. And the first since MS. NERVOUS! But grateful to the @CriticsChoice for including me," she wrote on January 12.
As previously reported, Applegate was officially diagnosed with multiple sclerosis while shooting the third and final series of "Dead to Me."
Filming was temporarily halted for about five months after Applegate's diagnosis so she could receive treatment and, as she told The New York Times in a recent interview, "process my loss of my life, my loss of that part of me."
While there was talk of completely shutting down production on the series, which also stars Linda Cardellini and follows two friends who meet in a grief group and become entangled in each other's lives, Applegate refused to end the story early.
She said she had an "obligation" to her costar Cardellini and the show's creator, Liz Feldman, to finish telling the story as it was intended.
Multiple sclerosis is a neurological disease that has varying symptoms but often affects vision, speech, and mobility, according to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). It can also cause cognitive issues, including trouble with attention, memory, and concentration.
MS occurs when the myelin sheath — a protective covering surrounding the nerves — is damaged. This damage disrupts nervous system communication between the brain and body and can lead to some of the symptoms listed above.