On Sunday, October 11, actress Selma Blair experienced a medical emergency aboard a Delta flight from Los Angeles to New York City.
Per multiple reports, the 54-year-old Cruel Intentions star has been accused of injuring two flight attendants during an episode of personal crisis. It has also been claimed she allegedly tried to open a door mid-flight, but her rep denies this.
After the flight landed, she was detained and hospitalized. Reports claim it was during this time she allegedly kicked a police officer as well as a nurse while still enduring her medical emergency.
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Selma has since been arraigned on two counts of second-degree assault, and her lawyer entered a not guilty plea.
The Legally Blonde thespian has publicly battled multiple sclerosis since 2018. MS is a chronic autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system. Her attorney has noted she missed her medication prior to her flight.
In a new statement issued to People magazine on Friday, her rep says:
“Since Sunday night, the public account of what happened to Selma aboard a flight to New York has been built almost entirely on a police statement and a decade-old headline. A handful of journalists have taken the time to report on Selma as a human being rather than a headline, and we are grateful to them. But fair reporting has been the exception, and in the space left by our silence, speculation has hardened into something being treated as fact. We can, however, correct the record on a few points already in public circulation. Selma Blair experienced a medical emergency on the flight. There was no attempt to open the door of the aircraft. Selma did not intend to harm anyone.”
The rep also hits back at anyone suggesting she doesn’t have MS:
“The suggestion by anyone that Selma does not have multiple sclerosis is outrageous. Her diagnosis has been public since 2018. What Selma has been able to do physically in the years since is nothing short of a miracle. She still has bad days, and she lives with pain daily. Selma also has pseudobulbar affect, a neurological condition secondary to her MS, which bears directly on how a medical episode presents to people who do not know her. For the same reason, she travels with a service dog who doesn’t leave her side, and the authorities took her dog from her.”
Noting she had “never been arrested before Sunday night,” her rep insists:
“There is much more to this story than has been reported, and we ask to consider the entirety of the facts before rushing to judgment, whether in the courtroom or in the court of public opinion.”
You can read the full statement here.
Selma is a disability rights advocate, an artist, and a human being. We wish her healing and grace as she navigates her way forward.
To learn more about multiple sclerosis, click here.
For resources on mental health, visit https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/find-help.
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