A Closer Look at Selma Blair's Health Journey Since Her Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis

Selma Blair, who has been open about her health, has drawn renewed attention to her publicly documented medical history following her arrest at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Representatives for the Cruel Intentions actress said she "experienced a medical emergency on the flight" and "did not intend to harm anyone" during an alleged altercation with members of a Delta Air Lines flight crew on October 11. Blair pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree assault and was released on bail following her arrest.

Scroll down to learn more about Blair's health history and the medical circumstances cited by her representatives in connection with the incident.

In an October 2018 Instagram post, Blair revealed she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis on August 16, 2018, but had been experiencing symptoms for years.

"I have #multiplesclerosis," she wrote in a caption. "I am in an exacerbation. By the grace of the lord, and will power and the understanding producers at Netflix, I have a job. A wonderful job. I am disabled. I fall sometimes. I drop things. My memory is foggy. And my left side is asking for directions from a broken gps. But we are doing it."

She added, "And I laugh and I don't know exactly what I will do precisely but I will do my best."

While Blair was "in the thick of it," she hoped to "give some hope to others."

After experiencing symptoms for a long time, things reportedly changed when she consulted a doctor.

"I have had symptoms for years but was never taken seriously until I fell down in front of him trying to sort out what I thought was a pinched nerve," she continued. I have probably had this incurable disease for 15 years at least. And I am relieved to at least know. And share."

The Legally Blonde actress shared further details about her health complications in her 2022 book, Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up.

In an excerpt from her memoir shared by The Guardian, Blair revealed she experienced years of unexplained physical and neurological symptoms leading up to her diagnosis, which reportedly began in childhood.

She disclosed she had fevers, urinary tract infections, nerve pain, numbness and depression that would come and go, making it difficult to identify an underlying cause. By the age of 22, an eye doctor raised multiple sclerosis as a possible cause of her symptoms, though she was not officially diagnosed at the time.

Around 2008, she witnessed a noticeable change in her physical symptoms when she began losing sensation in her legs. It eventually led to episodes of involuntary leg shaking and movements that increasingly interfered with her everyday activities.

Years before her diagnosis, Blair sought medical advice from several physicians due to her recurring leg weakness, pain and fatigue. Despite the persistence of her symptoms, she said she had not undergone an MRI during her trips to doctors' clinics.

"In early August 2018, I went to Miami alone to visit friends. I was shooting a movie in Atlanta and dragging from fatigue," she wrote. "I hoped the Florida sun and warm ocean water would invigorate me. It was a trip made for Instagram. I bought a tiny Eres bikini and Hermès shoes. Our friend wanted to enjoy the ocean on his new yacht. When we were out on the water, no land in sight, I walked to the edge of the boat and leapt high in the air. As soon as I hit the water, I knew something was terribly wrong. I couldn't swim. The act of jumping had taken everything I had out of me."

Shortly after returning from Miami, she consulted neurologist Jason Berkley following a recommendation from actress Elizabeth Berkley.

Selma wrote in the book, "He performed the Romberg's test, a simple examination where you put your feet together and close your eyes. My legs gave out beneath me. I fell backward, dropping like a plank on to the exam room floor. He ordered an MRI on the spot."

The MRI subsequently revealed multiple lesions in her brain associated multiple sclerosis, "six of which were problematic because they were active."

As soon as Selma heard her diagnosis, she "felt an adrenaline rush of emotion" which she compared to "giving birth."

"The release of it. The catharsis of it. But more than anything, I was overwhelmed by a sense of relief, like the way you feel when an ocean wave breaks right at the shore before taking you under. For years, my symptoms were dismissed as 'anxiety' and 'emotional,'" she scribed. "It was all in my head, perhaps. It's psychosomatic, they suggested. For years I'd known they were wrong (and right – it was in my head, only not in the way they thought). And now I had a map to follow. I had information. A label. This time, one that fit."

As part of her treatment, Selma underwent intensive chemotherapy and a hematopoietic stem cell transplant to reset her immune system in 2019.

Around two years later, The Sweetest Thing actress announced during a Discovery+'s Television Critics Association panel that she was in remission from MS.

"I've accrued a lifetime of some baggage in the brain that still needs a little sorting out or accepting," she told the crowd. "That took me a minute to get to that acceptance… I have really felt unwell and misunderstood for so long that it's just, me."

In September 2025, Selma revealed that a new doctor had identified a multiple sclerosis relapse that had previously gone undetected, indicating she had experienced additional disease activity. Her treatment was adjusted after the assessment, and she reported improvements in her condition by November 2025.

She eventually returned to acting as her MS became better managed, although she continued to experience fatigue and other lingering complications.

"I'm better enough that I can do things and talk and get out, and I'm doing great," Blair exclusively OK! in April.

In addition to MS, Selma's Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome contributed to her chronic pain.

"So, the Ehlers-Danlos makes me really, really, really stiff because I'll pull my muscles too easily, and then they're like slack and sit there. So I get some injuries," she shared in a January 2024 video. "This is nothing that's like horrible, scary stuff or anything. It's just like one of those extra things that turns into a chronic thing, and you have to watch because people think stretching's so good for you, and I'm technically not allowed to stretch because I'm always stretching."

Selma was arrested following an alleged assault aboard a Delta flight from Los Angeles to New York on October 11 and was taken to a hospital for medical evaluation.

In a statement, a representative for Blair said the Another Life actress "did not intend to harm anyone."

"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," the spokesperson said.

"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," the statement continued. "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."

Selma's representative also highlighted several projects the actress had worked on throughout the year, adding, "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."

After pleading not guilty to two counts of second-degree assault, Selma was released on $20,000 cash bail. The judge also issued a protection order for the hospital nurse involved in the incident.