“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,” her spokesperson told People.
“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.”
The spokesperson added, “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.”
Blair “has worked on seven film and television projects in 2026 alone, only a couple of which have been announced. She has launched a skin care line, a clothing line, and a line of eye-glass readers, each built around the idea of beauty and utility for people whose bodies do not always cooperate. She remains a visible and relentless advocate for disability rights, for the MS community, and this year for the Jewish community in the face of rising antisemitism, including from the stage of the ADL’s State of the Arts event at The Jewish Museum two weeks ago. Selma had never been arrested before Sunday night. 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,” the statement concluded.
Blair was arrested on Sunday, Oct. 11 for an incident that occurred after she allegedly punched one flight attendant and bit another on a Delta plane heading from Los Angeles to New York. Law enforcement was waiting for the 54-year-old “Legally Blonde” actress at John F. Kennedy airport, where police took her into custody and transported her to a hospital for evaluation. The arrest was due to her allegedly attacking a police officer and a nurse after being removed from the plane. She could also face federal charges for the incident on board the aircraft.
A representative for Blair told Variety: “Selma experienced a medical emergency that led to the alleged conduct. Upon landing, she received immediate medical attention and is currently in stable condition.”
The FBI opened an investigation relating to the incident, as the agency does with all assaults aboard aircraft. A Delta Air Lines spokesperson told Variety, “Delta has zero tolerance for unruly or unlawful behaviour, as the safety of our customers and crew always comes first.” Despite the chaos on board, there was no operational impact to the flight, which landed at JFK ahead of schedule at approximately 11 p.m.
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On Monday, Variety reported that Blair had received second-degree assault charges after her arrest, according to Queens Criminal Court. The actress posted $20,000 in bail, paid by credit card, and was released later that evening.
This incident was not the first time Blair had an outburst on a plane. In 2016, she was removed from a flight on a stretcher while travelling with her 4-year-old son after she “had a total psychotic blackout.” Blair chalked up the incident to drinking a glass of wine and taking a pill, saying at the time, “It was horrible and frightening and I had empathy for myself actually afterwards because it was actually so out of character for me, especially because I’m a mother.”
From Variety US