Christina Applegate Says She Wore Diapers After Contracting Virus from Tainted Salad

Christina Applegate is getting candid about how she ended up needing to wear diapers after contracting a virus from a tainted salad.

Applegate, 52, recalled the health experience in full detail in the latest installment of the MeSsy podcast, which she co-hosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler.

In the episode "Can I Be Honest?," Applegate explained that her experience began after she contracted COVID-19 from a close friend who "dropped the ball and went to a bowling alley, and came home with the stuff."

The actress, who revealed she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in August 2021, said it turned into long-term COVID, causing her to develop a chest infection where her heart began to do "weird stuff where it speeds up all of a sudden."

She recalled "pissing out of my a-- for a few days to the point where I was so dizzy. I was so sick, I couldn't eat, I couldn't [do] anything." After doing a stool test, she was diagnosed with sapovirus, which is "responsible for both sporadic cases and occasional outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis," per the National Institutes of Health.

"It is when you ingest the fecal matter of someone else from your food," Applegate explained. "Someone else's poop went into my mouth and I ate it."

Applegate believes she got the virus from a takeout salad at a restaurant she's frequented for 15 years and expressed that she woke up "at three o'clock in the morning in a pool of s---."

"Didn't know it happened, and having MS at three o'clock in the morning and trying to change your sheets, it's not fun. But this brings me to my next point, which we can talk about: I'm wearing diapers," Applegate said.

She noted that they are not "pretty" or "accessible," to which Sigler, 42, who revealed her MS diagnosis in January 2016, agreed.

"So adult diapers are a blush pink usually. And they usually have some sort of bow or floral design along the pelvic area. And to be honest, Christina and I have talked about this, putting on an adult diaper, you're not gonna feel sexy," said Sigler. "You're never gonna slip one on and be like, 'I'm ready for my day.' It's something you gotta wear because your body is malfunctioning."

While Sigler didn't specify when she got the virus, the podcast noted while sharing a clip of the episode on Instagram that "parts of this episode were recorded in 2023."

Back in March, PEOPLE spoke with Applegate and Sigler, who teased the episode while explaining what their podcast is about.

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"It's not about the specific experience we're having. It's us facing something hard and it's about figuring out how to still push through," said Sigler. "I've never been more ... nervous isn't the word, but like a good anxious about any project I've ever put out more than this, because I care so deeply about it. We are sharing the deepest parts of ourselves."

When PEOPLE asked Applegate and Sigler what were some challenges of living with MS that others may not understand, Applegate replied, "Well, you pee... in your pants. Because you probably can’t get to the bathroom in time. So yeah, diapers."