Selma Blair recalls ‘horrifying and humiliating’ plane outburst

Blair says she ‘didn’t know [she] had neurological issues’ during 2016 plane incident

Selma Blair has reflected on her eight-year journey with sobriety.

In an interview with US Weekly published July 17, the Legally Blonde actor looked back on an incident in 2016, in which she was kicked off an airplane for being intoxicated.

When asked what she considered to be her “lowest point” when she was drinking, Blair responded by mentioning how she was kicked off a flight eight years ago. “The plane incident,” she told the outlet.

“I had too much to drink in Mexico. I was so messed up and dehydrated and hungover and didn’t know I had neurological issues. I didn’t understand anything. It was horrifying and humiliating. I had to grow up,” Blair explained.

At the time, the Cruel Intentions star was traveling to Los Angeles from a vacation in Mexico with her then four-year-old son, Arthur, and his father: her ex-partner Jason Bleick. Multiple outlets had claimed at the time that Blair was mixing prescription medication with alcohol, which resulted in her passing out and to “say and do things that I deeply regret.”

“I made a big mistake yesterday. After a lovely trip with my son and his dad, I mixed alcohol with medication, and that caused me to black out and led me to say and do things that I deeply regret,” Blair said in a statement to Vanity Fair shortly after the incident.

“My son was with his dad asleep with his headphones on, so there is that saving grace. I take this very seriously, and I apologize to all of the passengers and crew that I disturbed and am thankful to all of the people who helped me in the aftermath,” she added. “I am a flawed human being who makes mistakes and am filled with shame over this incident. I am truly very sorry.”

That same year, Blair made the decision to be sober from alcohol. Speaking to US Weekly, she detailed just how dedicated she’s been to being sober ever since the plane incident. “I wouldn’t have been able to be diagnosed with MS unless I was sober. I wouldn’t be a good mom unless I was sober. I self-medicated,” Blair said.

In a November 2023 interview with Kristen Welker on Meet The Press, the actor explained how she went years with her multiple sclerosis (MS) being misdiagnosed by doctors who classified her early symptoms as “menstrual issues.”

“Everything does not need to be blamed on menstruation or something,” she said, noting that the long delay in her diagnosis was likely due to “older male doctors who really probably did not know the intricacies of a girl.”

Blair added that one doctor even told her one solution could be that she “needed a boyfriend.”

“I just cried,” she said, after being asked how that interaction made her feel. “I had no capability to process: ‘What am I supposed to do with this information?’ I knew the pain was real. I thought it was. But I did start to convince myself: ‘You’re overly sensitive. There’s nothing wrong with you. Get it together, you lazy, lazy whatever.’”

In October 2018, Blair publicly shared that she had been diagnosed with MS - a condition that affects the central nervous system, disrupting the flow of information within the brain and between the brain and body, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

She offered fans a glimpse into her health struggles in the Discovery+ documentary Introducing, Selma Blair. The film, which was released in 2021, followed Blair as she underwent a risky stem cell transplant to treat the disease. In August that year, Blair revealed she was in remission following the stem cell transplant.