Selma Blair has issued her first statement since the actress’ incident aboard a flight, with a spokesperson for Blair saying that, contrary to reports, “Selma 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,” Blair’s rep said in a statement to People.
On Sunday night, Blair was detained after allegedly assaulting multiple flight attendants and additional erratic behavior exhibited on an inbound Delta Airlines flight from Los Angeles International Airport to John F. Kennedy airport.
Blair’s rep initially said the actress suffered a “medical emergency,” but the initial investigation found that the actress had an altercation with three flight attendants that resulted in their injuries.
“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,” Blair’s rep said without specification. “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.”
The rep reiterated that Blair “experienced a medical emergency on the flight,” and denied the most dangerous accusation against the actress: That Blair attempted to open the door of the plane mid-flight.
“There was no attempt to open the door of the aircraft. Selma did not intend to harm anyone,” the rep added.
The “decade-old headline” cited by Blair’s rep refers to an incident in 2016 where Blair was removed from a plane for causing a disturbance. Two years after that incident, the actress revealed she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, the authenticity of which — in the aftermath of the latest plane incident — people have questioned, according to Blair’s rep.
“The suggestion by anyone that Selma does not have multiple sclerosis is outrageous. Her diagnosis has been public since 2018,” the rep said. “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.”
Blair pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree assault stemming from the plane incident and was released on bail; the actress is scheduled to appear at a Comic-Con in Connecticut this weekend. The FBI is investigating the plane incident.
“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,” Blair’s rep added.
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