What to Know
In the nearly five years since announcing her multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis to the world, Christina Applegate has continued to be open about the ways the progressive disease has affected her life — including the lighter moments. During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live this week, Christina revealed that she has named some of her body parts so she can scold them when they don’t cooperate with her… including one body part that she named after the Duchess of Sussex.
The honor of being named after Meghan Markle was given to an unexpected body part.
While talking to host Jimmy Kimmel about her unique approach to making her more painful days of MS symptoms a bit easier, she prefaced her story by sharing that her body parts’ names are certainly not meant to be insulting.
“They’re pretty funny,” she said. “And, by the way, this is not, like, derogatory to any of the people that I’m saying it about because one of them is very famous.”
The one she was talking about there is Meghan… the name that she’s given her right knee. “And that’s not a bad thing. It’s like, ‘Meghan, thank you.’ Thank you,” she added.
She emphasized that it was meant to be a compliment.
Just in case Meghan happened to watch this segment at home and take her comments the wrong way, Christina clarified again that she wasn’t trying to be mean.
“I think she’s probably gonna be mad about that,” she said. “But you know what? It’s really not, like, a bad thing. It’s really like, ‘Can you just please help me, Meghan!’”
Jimmy seemed to agree with her, adding, “I think she’ll be perfectly okay with it.”
That’s not the only body part she’s nicknamed.
Christina also explained that her right hand is named Barbara, and it’s married to her left hand, whose name is Stanley (naturally). Her left knee is named Tootie, after the character played by Kim Fields on The Facts of Life, and yes, she does talk to them when they’re acting up.
“Yes, yes, completely, because when they get weird, we yell at them and say, ‘Hey, man! Stop it!’” she said.
Speaking to her body parts who aren’t behaving the way they should actually does help her, interestingly enough. “Because it’s a brain disorder, so it kinda stops it. It’s weird!” she said.
Hey, whatever works — and for the record, we have a feeling that Meghan would be flattered to find out that she made the cut for body part names.
