Jamie-Lynn Sigler shot to stardom at the turn of the millennium in her role as Meadow Soprano, daughter of mob boss Tony, on “The Sopranos.” During that time, she was also diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), which she kept under wraps until 2016, when she took on a new role as a vocal patient advocate.
In a keynote session Tuesday at the Fierce Pharma Week 2025 conference in Philadelphia, Sigler spoke about the decision to open up about her diagnosis, the positive impacts it has had on her life and her advice to pharmas seeking to better understand and address the patient experience.
Sigler said she ultimately decided to share her MS diagnosis publicly after a decade and a half for two main reasons: For one, she wanted to set a good example for her then-2-year-old son about embracing the things that make each person unique. For another, keeping it a secret for so long had created an extra mental burden on top of the physical impacts of MS that was no longer bearable.
“I wasn’t allowing myself the space to accept the diagnosis and to properly process any emotions that come along with living with something with MS,” she said. “And a lot of the time when you keep secrets, things come along with it like shame, which is nothing that anybody should feel when they have a diagnosis.”
Finally opening up about it, she said, “completely changed everything for the better.”
Sigler said she assumed speaking out about her MS would be an opportunity for her to offer a “gift of service”—but, in fact, she gained a whole new community.
“I received a group of people that I could connect with, that could understand me, could understand what I go through. And so that just opened up my world and my life in such a way and allowed me to fully accept the diagnosis, accept myself and understand the ways I was letting it define me,” she said. “Coming public felt like the scariest thing in the world and ended up being the best thing in the world.”
Throughout it all, Sigler has maintained a sense of hope and optimism, which she credited largely to her desire to be there for her children.
“But also, because I still have my dream and my art and my ambitions as an actress and a performer, as an advocate,” she added. “I’ve been able to sort of put MS in the passenger seat of my life: It’s with me, it’s part of me, it’s given me purpose, it’s given me a lot of joy and connection.”
Among those connections are several projects in which Sigler has made a point of sharing her most authentic self, including “MeSsy,” the podcast that she hosts alongside fellow actress and MS patient advocate Christina Applegate, as well as her yearslong partnership with Novartis.
In addition to starring in commercials for MS treatment Kesimpta, the actress noted that she has also worked with the Swiss pharma to develop a three-step guide to support people through an MS diagnosis and a conversation guide for talking with care teams about treatment options.
Sigler touched on that experience working closely with a drugmaker to offer some advice to other pharma and healthcare companies seeking to better reach patients.
“We want to feel heard. We want a voice in in the matter. We want our voice in our care and our treatment. So, keeping that line of communication open and feeling like the patient’s voice matters, I think, really helps people,” she said. “It almost has a placebo effect in people’s bodies, because I think feeling powerful, calming your nervous system—all of these things can only help along somebody’s health journey.”