Earlier this month Sopranos actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler revealed that she has multiple sclerosis. Now, speaking with Matt Lauer on the Today show, she explained that she was told to keep her condition a secret by an "industry professional" who said that it would hurt her career. Sigler, who played Tony Soprano's daughter Meadow, was diagnosed four years into her time on the HBO hit. The show ran for six seasons.
She explained: "I know they were looking out for me at the time but they said, 'I'm going to pretend you didn't tell me that, and I don't think you should every tell anyone that you have this disease, because people will limit you, people will judge you, and they won't hire you.' And I took that advice. I was 20-years-old and I was scared and I thought that was the best thing."
Sigler said that keeping the secret over the years elicited "feelings of shame and guilt and fear." In People, Sigler talked about hiding the disease while she worked in the years following The Sopranos. "Sometimes all I needed was like five or 10 minutes to sit and recharge but I wouldn't ask, because I didn't want them to be suspicious," she said.
Sigler recently married baseball player Cutter Dykstra.
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