Jamie Lynn Sigler, best known for playing Tony Soprano's daughter "Meadow" in The Sopranos, started a new chapter of her life this weekend after getting married. That chapter also begins with Sigler coming out publicly and announcing she has multiple sclerosis (MS). Sigler sat down with People to talk about what her diagnosis has meant for her past and present and what it will mean for her future.
The 34-year-old actress revealed to People that she was actually diagnosed with MS 15 years ago when she was working on The Sopranos, but didn't come out with the news earlier because she wasn't "ready." "You'd think that after all these years, somebody would be settled with something like this, but it's still hard to accept," Sigler toldPeople about being diagnosed with MS. Multiple sclerosis is defined by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society as "an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body." The disease is incurable, but can be managed with medication. Over the past six years Sigler's been taking medication that's kept the MS symptoms under control.
Sigler explains MS has meant she can't walk over an extended period time if she doesn't rest, let alone run. On set for The Sopranos Sigler reveals she sometimes needed "five or 10 minutes to sit and recharge" but didn't ask out of fear of making her secret known.
After the People interview went live Sigler posted a message of her own on Instagram writing, "It [MS] has slowed me down and it can make things hard, but there is still a lot I CAN do. I hope I can be an example to anyone struggling out there to push through and past your circumstances."
