LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - Emmy-winning American actress Christina Applegate has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), and described her condition as a "tough road".

"A few months ago, I was diagnosed with MS. It's been a strange journey. But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition. It's been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going," she said in a tweet on Tuesday (Aug 10).

"As one of my friends that has MS said: 'We wake up and take the indicated action.' And that's what I do. So now I ask for privacy. As I go through this thing," her tweet added.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system causing muscular weakness, loss of coordination, and speech and visual disturbance.

Other celebrities who have been diagnosed with MS include actress Selma Blair, reality television star Jack Osbourne and actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler.

Applegate, 49, won a Primetime Emmy for outstanding guest actress in a comedy series for the sitcom Friends in 2003. She was nominated in the same category for the same show in 2004.

She was also nominated for outstanding lead actress in a comedy series for the sitcom Samantha Who? in 2008 and 2009.

In 2019 and 2020, Applegate was nominated in the lead actress category again for the tragicomedy series Dead To Me, which was also nominated for outstanding comedy series.

Applegate, who first gained fame as a child actress in the hit sitcom Married With Children, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 and had a double mastectomy.