Christina Applegate Is ‘Sad’ for Daughter Sadie Who Has POTS (2024)

Christina Applegate’s daughter, Sadie, is fighting her own health battle amid her mom’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis.

“I have something called POTS,” Sadie, 13, said on the Tuesday, June 25, episode of the “MeSsy” podcast, referring to postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. “I have no clue what it actually is but it’s something to do with the autonomic nervous system and it affects my heart. When I stand up, I get really, really dizzy and my legs get really weak and I feel like I’m going to pass out.”

Sadie shared that she has fainted and even gone unconscious before, but that doesn’t “usually” occur. She explained, “That’s only on really bad days when it’s hot out.”

POTS is a condition that “causes your heart to beat faster than normal when you transition from sitting or lying down to standing up,” per the Cleveland Clinic.

While Sadie received her diagnosis a few months ago, she’s had to live with POTS for a “long time.”

“Last year, in 6th grade, I would go to the nurse multiple times a day for it because I always felt like I was going to pass out,” she said. “In class, if I were to stand up then I would be like, ‘I have to go to the nurse. I can’t do this.’ Or I’ll be in PE, and I’ll be like, ‘I have to go to the nurse.’”

Sadie recalled the nurses thinking she was “lying” about her symptoms. “They were like, ‘You’re doing this to get out of class. It’s probably just anxiety. Go back to class.’ They wouldn’t do anything for it,” she said.

Sadie said it was “really hard” to hear those comments from the nurses because she was “so sick” and “in a lot of pain.”

“Them not doing anything about it definitely hurt me physically and emotionally,” she said. “Because I was just like, ‘This is rude and I feel sick and you’re telling me to go to PE and run laps around the football field. I can’t do that.’”

Applegate, 52, admitted that she feels “very guilty” because she “didn’t really understand what was happening” with her daughter. (The Dead to Me star shares Sadie with her husband, Martyn LeNoble.)

“She wears layers of clothes on 90 degree days and she hates PE — sorry school, not a big fan of PE or physical things,” Applegate said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I kind of felt that way too.’ I feel so horrible that we didn’t pay attention to it.”

Before Sadie was diagnosed, Applegate said she had never heard of the condition. “I just didn’t see it at home, babe. At home you were fine. But it’s kind of like us,” Applegate said in a conversation with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who also has MS. “We get out in the world, and the stresses and the anxiety of the world bring upon our symptoms much worse then they would be if we were in the safety and the coolness of our own homes.”

“And I’m so sorry Sadie Grace,” Applegate said, to which Sadie replied, “It’s OK.”

Sadie’s own battle with POTS has made her sympathetic to her mom’s journey with MS. (Applegate revealed her MS diagnosis in 2021.)

“I feel like if I didn’t have this thing it would be a lot harder to understand what my mom’s going through,” she said. “Like, when my mom’s like, ‘Oh, I’m kind of in pain right now. Oh, I’m having tremors.’ If I didn’t have this, I probably would be like, ‘I don’t really care. I don’t know what you’re talking about.’”

Applegate said many people “came out of the woodwork” after Sadie received her diagnosis. “I hate it for you my darling. I really hate it for you,” she said. “I’m sad. But I love you and I know you’re going to be OK. And I’m here for you and I believe you. And thank you for bringing this to light and awareness.”

Sadie has now tried medication, but she doesn’t feel like “they’re working at all.” Applegate interjected to note that Sadie isn’t taking “the amount that you’re supposed to.”

“When you tried to make me take those in a bag to school, I’m scared that they’re going to get confiscated because some teacher will think I’ll have drugs or something,” Sadie said, to which Applegate noted that it’s been cleared by the nurses office.

Applegate added that they have this argument daily. “I’m like, ‘Just put them in my bag.’ [She’s like,] ‘No I can’t.’ [I’m like,] ‘Yes you can.’ [She’s like,] ‘No I can’t,’” she said. “But it’s OK, Sadie. It’s fine. We’re going to figure it out.”