Dead to Me's Christina Applegate's life changing cancer battle - everything we know

Christina Applegate recently delivered a challenging update on her MS health diagnosis, but sadly it's by far the first time she's been forced to face a crisis when it comes to her body. The mom-of-one, was told she had breast cancer at the age of 36 and after a lumpectomy, she was told further devastating news, that she had the BRCA1 genetic mutation (a gene which is associated with an increased risk of both breast and ovarian cancer).MORE: Celebrities who have spoken bravely about MS: Christina Applegate, Selma Blair and moreChristina, 51, made the dramatic decision to have a bilateral mastectomy. "It came on really fast. It was one of those things that I woke up and it felt so right," she told CNN.Loading the player... var track = function (evt_name) { dataLayer.push({ 'event': evt_name, 'eventValue': { 'category': 'videos', 'action': evt_name, 'label': 'HELLO - gOQD8MKW', 'videoUrl': 'https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/gOQD8MKW.mp4', 'videoTitle': 'Katie Couric gives first interview on Today since breast cancer diagnosis' } }); }; var playerInstance = playerInstance || []; playerInstance['gOQD8MKW'] = jwplayer('MC4zOTExNjkwMCAxNjY5NzUxNzQyNDAxOA=='); playerInstance['gOQD8MKW'].setup({ sources: [ {file: 'https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/gOQD8MKW-720.mp4', label: '480'}, {file: 'https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/gOQD8MKW-1280.mp4', label: '720 HD', default: 'true'}, {file: 'https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/gOQD8MKW-1920.mp4', label: '1080 HD'} ], primary: 'html5', image: 'https://content.jwplatform.com/thumbs/gOQD8MKW-720.jpg', related: { file: 'https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/playlists/W7M0hKhu?related_media_id=gOQD8MKW', onclick : 'play' }, autostart: false, sharing: {} }); function getDataPermutive() { return new Promise((resolve, reject) => { let maxRetries = 2; let countRetry = 0; let checkingInterval = setInterval( function() { if (countRetry { return new Promise((resolve, reject) => { try { return getDataPermutive().then(_pdfps => { let playerConfig = playerInstance['gOQD8MKW'].getConfig(); const sections = playerConfig.advertising.schedule; const updatedSections = new Array(); sections.forEach(function callback(section, index) { let offSet = section.offset; let tagUrl = section.tag; let playerSegsPerm = encodeURIComponent('&permutive=' + encodeURIComponent(JSON.parse(_pdfps || '[]').slice(0, 250).join(','))); tagUrl = tagUrl.replace(/(cust_params[^&]+)/, '$1' + playerSegsPerm); updatedSections[index] = {tag: tagUrl, offset: offSet}; }); const updatedPlaylistItem = Object.assign({}, item, {adschedule: updatedSections}); console.log('Permutive added to Pre-roll !!!'); resolve(updatedPlaylistItem); }).catch(() => { console.warn('Permutive no data!!!'); resolve(); }); } catch(error) { console.warn(error); resolve(); } }); }); jwplayer().onPlay(function () { track('play'); }); jwplayer().onPause(function () { track('pause'); }); jwplayer().onComplete(function () { track('complete'); }); jwplayer().onSeek(function () { track('seek'); }); WATCH: Katie Couric's first interview since breast cancer diagnosis"It just seemed like, 'I don't want to have to deal with this again. I don't want to keep putting that stuff in my body. I just want to be done with this.' and I was just going to let them go."It was an incredibly emotional process, but not one she was completely foreign to as her own mother had undergone the procedure in the 70s. MORE: Christina Applegate reveals 40lbs weight gain after MS diagnosisMORE: Netflix star Christina Applegate shocks fans with devastating health updateHowever, those visions only made Christina more nervous as she admitted that during her mom's surgery, "they didn't do a very good job back then". Christina now suffers from MSNone-the-less, the Dead to Me actress knew what she wanted to do, and she didn't want to wait. "It can be very painful," she revealed to the news network. "It's also a part of you that's gone, so you go through a grieving process and a mourning process."MORE: Christina Applegate reveals impact MS diagnosis has had on her careerTo begin with, she said she would cry every day but gradually she used what she had been through to help others. Christina was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 36"This is my opportunity now to go out and fight as hard as I can for early detection," she's said. Now, Christina is opening up about her struggles with multiple sclerosis, admitting she wished she'd paid more attention to the symptoms when they began.Before her MS news in 2021, Christina admitted that she began experiencing symptoms years before – such as numbness and a tingling sensation in her limbs – but was unaware of the connection to the disease."I wish I had paid attention," she said during an interview with the New York Times. "But who was I to know?" Once diagnosed, Christina admitted: "There was the sense of, 'Well, let's get her some medicine so she can get better.' And there is no better. But it was good for me. I needed to process the loss of my life, my loss of that part of me."Like this story? Sign up to our HELLO! Mail newsletter to receive all the latest royal and celebrity news straight in your inbox.