- Jamie-Lynn Sigler gave a health update in a new podcast interview.
- The actress has lived with multiple sclerosis for 21 years.
- She recently embarked on a “healing journey” in India, and hoped that it would help her better learn how to live with the condition.
The Sopranos star Jamie-Lynn Sigler has lived with multiple sclerosis (MS) for 21 years. In that time, she continued to act (and still does) and became a mother of two, all while navigating her condition. In a recent interview on Peggy Rometo and Kimberly Van Der Beek’s podcast Bathroom Chronicles, Sigler detailed her difficult journey, and said she’s optimistic that her healing will soon turn a new leaf.
“I feel myself leveling up and moving forward as a human being but my body not following me and ... that’s like, my struggle now,” the 41-year-old explained. “You feel like it should be aligned, and it’s not.”
MS is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the central nervous system, which affects the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves, per the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Symptoms can affect mobility, cognition, vision, and more.
There is currently no cure for the disease, and the Big Sky star has exhausted many treatment options. “I’ve traveled the world—if somebody tells me, ‘This is gonna heal you,’ I’ve gone,” she said. And her most recent exploration into that was a “healing journey” spent in India, during which she lived alone in an ashram for a week and a half. She added that the whole experience was part of a docuseries. (The podcast interview, though released last week, pre-dated the trip, which took place in early January.)
“I just want to learn how to live with this better. I can’t give up. I don’t want to give up on life,” she said, getting emotional. “I have beautiful children. I have my own dreams and aspirations. It’s been really hard for a long time...”
She continued: “I think it would be really cool for my kids to witness miraculous healing too, how they could take that throughout their life. I have like my vision that I always hold on to that I try to see when I meditate or anything, and it’s always just me running with them ... It’s me just running in front of them in their joy and their happiness because they talk about it all the time. It’s all they want.”
Sigler added that she was “not attached to an outcome,” and although she’s been very adamant about shielding her physical limitations from the public eye, she said the docuseries will shed light on them. “That, one day, would’ve been really scary for me but now is really almost exciting,” she said.
Other celebrities who live and work with MS include Selma Blair (who found remission with stem cell therapy and other treatments) and Christina Applegate.
Kayla Blanton is a freelance writer-editor who covers health, nutrition, and lifestyle topics for various publications including Prevention, Everyday Health, SELF, People, and more. She’s always open to conversations about fueling up with flavorful dishes, busting beauty standards, and finding new, gentle ways to care for our bodies. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio University with specializations in women, gender, and sexuality studies and public health, and is a born-and-raised midwesterner living in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband and two spoiled kitties.
