Jamie-Lynn Sigler tells ‘Today’ she kept MS secret to protect her career

This “Sopranos” star feared revealing that she had multiple sclerosis would whack her career.

Jamie-Lynn Sigler recently started talking about her 15-year battle with the debilitating neurological disorder — but she kept the original diagnosis secret to avoid destroying her career, she said on the “Today” show Wednesday.

The then 20-year-old actress told an industry professional that she had MS early on who responded with, “I’m going to pretend you didn’t tell me that,” and warned her that “people will limit you, they will judge you and they will not hire you.”

But now that’s all in the past.

“I feel a great weight off my shoulders,” 34-year-old actress told Matt Lauer in her first live television interview since revealing her MS struggle to People magazine last week.

The bombshell report came just four days after Sigler married pro baseball player Cutter Dykstra in Palm Springs. The newlyweds have a 2-year-old son, Beau, who was her inspiration to come forward.

“I didn’t want to bring my son up in a home where he felt like he had to hold this secret for me too,” she said on Wednesday.

 

“I feel relief ... I’m claiming my power back,” she added, admitting that MS caused her “shame and guilt and fear” for more than a decade.

Sigler learned she had the disorder caused by the immune system attacking the protective insulation around nerves while she was still working on “The Sopranos” and suffering tingling sensations and heaviness in her legs.

She was symptom-free for some time, which allowed her to star as Belle in “Beauty and the Beast” on Broadway for four months in 2002.

But as her marriage to A.J. Discala ended in 2005, “things started to happen,” as she began experiencing incontinence and weakness on her right side.

“High heels are hard for me,” she told Lauer. “I cannot run. I can’t dance the way I used to. It’s hard.”

MS has no cure, but Sigler has said she takes the Tecfidera pill twice a day to keep her symptoms in check.

And she’s worked hard to hide her condition as she’s continued working onscreen, including roles on “Entourage” and “Ugly Betty.”

She told People that sometimes she would need just “five or 10 minutes to sit and recharge,” but she didn’t take breaks because she didn’t want to raise suspicions.

But now she’s free to focus on doing her best work.

“I’m excited to go back to work without feeling that I have something to hide,” she told Lauer. “I understand some people may not want to hire me, and some people may, but I have every intention of continuing my career.”

She’s also embracing her new role as a role model for men and women with MS.

“I didn’t anticipate the level of responsibility I now feel for representing a whole group of people that suffer in silence,” she said. “I hope I can change people’s idea of what this disease is.”