Washington [US], April 27 : Jamie-Lynn Sigler revealed she was advised against revealing her multiple sclerosis diagnosis during her time on 'The Sopranos' by the set physician, reported The Hollywood Reporter.
During an appearance on Sophia Bush's podcast Work in Progress, the actress disclosed that she received a multiple sclerosis diagnosis at the age of 20, a year after being diagnosed with Lyme disease.
Shortly after learning about her MS diagnosis, Sigler underwent a physical and informed the physician about her recent health development.
"He's like, 'Uh yeah, I don't think you should tell anybody about that and I'm not going to put this down [on your medical records],'" Sigler recounted.
"I just followed his advice because I also wasn't that symptomatic at the time so it wasn't something that I thought about, or that I had to think about all the time," she explained. Sigler then confirmed she initially "told no one, absolutely no one" on the set about her MS diagnosis.
During the show's last season, she had a breakdown on the makeup chair amidst her divorce from A.J. DiScala, which she hadn't disclosed to the cast and crew either. "Everyone was wrapping their arms around me and I remember thinking, 'You can tell them [about the diagnosis].' And I just couldn't do it," Sigler revealed.
"I was so scared," she added. "I'd already told them one secret. I couldn't tell them two." When the stress from the divorce took a toll on her health, affecting her work on set, her TV dad checked in on her.
"James Gandolfini pulled me aside and said, 'What's going on? I can see that something's happening.' I felt tears welling up in my eyes," Sigler remembered. She disclosed her medical issues and told him that she was "so fucking scared."
"I remember him putting his big paw on my shoulder and he's like, 'Whatever you need I'm not gonna tell anyone but whatever you need, you let me know," she recalled.
Sigler kept her multiple sclerosis diagnosis from her fellow cast members until they were participating in a photoshoot for The Sopranos. During the shoot, Edie Falco revealed to her that she had been privately battling breast cancer. "I couldn't believe that I didn't know. I was looking at her and I saw myself," Sigler recalled. "And so that was the moment that I told her."
The actress publicly disclosed her MS diagnosis for the first time in 2016. During that year, she recounted to WebMD an encounter with a medical professional in the entertainment industry who said to her, "I'm going to pretend you never told me you have MS, and you are never going to tell anyone at work. You will get fired. No one will hire you. People will judge you. Keep it between us."
Falco expressed to the publication, "When I found out that she had MS, it broke my heart. Just knowing how difficult it must have been to go through that as a kid, really and to do it so quietly. She was always so professional, so beyond her years."
HBO opted not to provide a comment regarding Sigler's statements about the on-set physician.
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