‘There Is Much More to This Story’: Selma Blair’s Rep Issues Lengthy Statement Following Midair Freakout and Arrest

(AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

A rep for actress Selma Blair issued a lengthy statement to People Friday afternoon defending her nearly a week after she allegedly freaked out on a flight from Los Angeles to New York City — and was arrrested after she was accused of biting a flight attendant.

Blair, 54, later pleaded not guilty to assault charges after she was also accused of attacking cops who brought her to the hospital for an evaluation.

“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 spokesperson said in a statement given to People.

The statement continued:

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 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.

The statment went on to note 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,” her rep said.

“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.”

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!