On January 15, Jamie-Lynn Sigler appears on Grey’s Anatomy as a doctor living with MS, echoing her own 25-year experience with relapsing multiple sclerosis.
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On January 15, millions will have one of those moments when Jamie-Lynn Sigler appears on Grey’s Anatomy as a doctor living with MS, echoing her own 25-year experience with relapsing multiple sclerosis. It marks her return to television after a three-year pause. Still, it also reflects something much deeper: a woman stepping fully into who she is, without apology, explanation, or softening.
If you’ve followed Jamie over the years, you already know she has spoken openly about her diagnosis. Sigler will portray a character whose story intersects with her own in very real ways. You may have seen her new memoir, And So It Is, where she writes with honesty and humor about life, disability, motherhood, and the parts of ourselves we learn to stop hiding. You may have also heard her on MeSsy, the podcast she co-hosts with Christina Applegate, where the two friends talk about chronic illness with a mix of candor and laughter that cuts through stereotypes.
Jamie returning to TV, playing a doctor, no less, feels like a cultural recalibration. And it’s coming at a time when more attention is being given to how women, especially mothers, manage invisible disabilities while still holding a family together, building careers, and showing up for everyone else in ways that often go unnoticed.
But what makes this moment powerful isn’t simply that she’s acting again. It’s that she is doing it while refusing to minimize the full truth of her life.
Why Representation Matters, Especially for Women With MS
Multiple sclerosis affects an estimated 1 million people in the U.S., according to data from the National MS Society. Women are disproportionately impacted. In fact, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine explain that women are up to three times more likely to develop MS than men.
Despite that, representation still feels scarce. There are plenty of stories about overcoming adversity, but fewer that show women living with chronic illness while keeping careers, families, and identities intact. And even fewer that highlight how messy, funny, frustrating, and hopeful that process can be.
“Playing this role was a dream come true,” Sigler shared, “And it has a history of representing diseases and chronic illnesses. I wanted to show someone who is accepting her diagnosis, moving forward in hope and faith to achieve her dreams, and owning her power. That’s the road I try to walk down.”
She went on to explain that portraying a character like Dr. Kaplan helped her see, in a new way, how presence itself is representation. “Anytime I’m on the screen, I AM representing and being on the screen, telling our story.”
Something is grounding about that. Not heroic. Not dramatic. Just real.
Living With MS While Mothering, Working, and Asking For Help
Jamie has spent more than half her life living with MS. She understands the emotional tug-of-war many women face: wanting to be strong and independent but also needing support.
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Jamie has spent more than half her life living with MS. She understands the emotional tug-of-war many women face: wanting to be strong and independent but also needing support. She knows what it feels like to worry that asking for help will disappoint people. She knows the pressure mothers feel to hold everything together, quietly, invisibly, and without pause.
When asked how she advocates for herself on set and at home, she said, “That’s the hardest part of all of this. Women want to be independent. I wouldn’t be able to live my life if I didn’t give myself a voice and the confidence to ask for help.”
Her advocacy is woven through her partnership with Novartis, where she speaks openly about her treatment for RMS. She is currently taking KESIMPTA® (ofatumumab), and during interviews, she emphasized the importance of informed conversations with specialists. As she noted, doctors will check for active Hepatitis B infection, since people with Hepatitis B should not take the medication. A doctor will also talk through potential risks, such as liver damage, injection reactions, reduced antibody levels, headaches, and serious infections. It’s a lot of information to hold, and it can feel overwhelming without the right support.
That’s why she often points people to her Treatment Decision Guide, a resource she co-created with Novartis and others living with MS to help patients ask meaningful questions during medical appointments. She also highlights the educational tools available on ReframingMS.com for newly diagnosed patients and their families.
As she put it, “For the newly diagnosed, a treatment decision guide on your journey: talk to your neuro to have some control and autonomy, informed by questions tailored to your needs.” She explained that for her, practicality matters. “For instance, medication, because I could be called in to work next week, so that I can take my treatment with me.”
Jamie’s honesty strips away shame. It makes space for relief. It reminds women that accepting help is not a weakness; it’s a strategy.
The Reality of Accommodations Regarding MS, And the Pride That Gets in the Way
Jamie touched on an emotional truth many people with chronic conditions face: the tension between self-reliance and support. She said, “Having a disability, you’re weak or incapable. You just have to find a new way. It starts with you.”
Then she shared how that looks in practice. “It started with me being comfortable, like, can I have a trailer that is closest to the set, or participate in my personal life with the kids, or can I get a cane? Accommodations need to be made. There is a wrestle with pride; I still go through it. But I also know the other side of it. Asking for help and accepting help. Things have been incredibly difficult but liberating.”
Reframing accessibility as liberating is empowering. We talk about it as a necessity or compliance. Rarely as freedom.
For women, and especially mothers, the conditioning runs deep: take up less space, don’t inconvenience people, carry it all quietly. Jamie refusing that pattern and saying it out loud allows others to do the same.
Storytelling MS as Healing, Clarity, and Connection
Jamie has learned to mine humor, honesty, and memory in ways that resonate widely. Her memoir is one example of that. Her work in MeSsy is another. She also co-hosts Not Today Pal with Robert Iler, where vulnerability and humor sit side by side.
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“I hid so much of myself for so long,” she said. “Even going back through writing my book and realizing how much harder I made everything because I made everything so isolating. I thought people would judge me or reject me. I limited the love and support that I could receive.”
These days, she expressed that she is sharing it all. “These things have allowed me to grow and reflect. I wouldn’t see the world that I do if it weren’t for MS.”
She also believes openness helps others engage. People asking questions are great. It can be a moment to educate. They are open and ask, and we all just feel more comfortable. It’s new territory for people.”
Her story works because she never positions herself as a symbol. She’s a person, learning out loud, and letting others learn with her.
What Women With Chronic Illness Like MS Wish Workplaces Understood
Jamie sees clear gaps in support for people living with chronic illness, especially working mothers. She shared that old stereotypes still linger. “Having a disability, you’re weak or incapable,” she said. “You just have to find a new way.”
Workplaces, she believes, need to make accommodations the standard rather than the exception. That includes scheduling flexibility, physical accessibility on sets and in offices, and open communication without fear of judgment.
But she also stresses that change starts with self-advocacy. “It started with me being comfortable,” she explained. “Accommodations need to be made.”
The message is clear: women should not have to earn the right to care for themselves.
What Jamie’s MS Story Reminds Us
Jamie’s return to acting is important. But her presence, her physical presence, is even more so.
Novartis
Jamie’s return to acting is important. But her presence, her physical presence, is even more so.
She is showing millions of women something simple and profound:
You don’t have to be perfect.
You don’t have to pretend.
You are allowed to take up space.
You are allowed to ask for help.
You are allowed to be exactly who you are.
And yes, your story, whether it’s MS or any other part of your life, is worth telling.
