Selma Blair Speaks Out on Plane Arrest: “Did Not Intend to Harm Anyone”

Selma Blair‘s spokesperson is speaking out, explaining the actress’ side of what happened onboard the Los Angeles-New York flight earlier this week, where Blair allegedly assaulted two flight attendants, one of whom she allegedly bit, leading to an arrest and charges. Blair also reportedly attempted to open the aircraft door at some point during the flight.

“Selma Blair experienced a medical emergency on the flight,” Blair’s rep said in part in the statement (read the full statement below). “There was no attempt to open the door of the aircraft. Selma did not intend to harm anyone.”

Blair, who was arrested at JFK and taken to the hospital, also allegedly repeatedly kicked the police officer taking her to the hospital and allegedly kicked a nurse in the chest.

During a court appearance Monday night, Blair’s attorney Shawn Barnes said his client missed taking medication that manages her MS and said Blair had been working “extensive hours and exhaustive hours” before the flight. She also hit her head on a bankhead while onboard the plane.

“These factors, coupled with the altitude, resulted in a state of severe confusion and disorientation,” Barnes said in court.

Blair pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault but separate charges from the FBI are expected as the agency investigates all incidents onboard flights. Her next court date is Jan. 19 and she’s reportedly facing two to seven years in jail.

In the statement released Friday, ahead of Blair’s planned appearance at ’90s Con in Hartford, Connecticut, over the weekend, Blair’s rep adds that in addition to MS, saying “the suggestion by anyone that Selma does not have multiple sclerosis is outrageous,” she has the neurological condition pseudobulbar affect, “which bears directly on how a medical episode presents to people who do not know her.” For this reason, Blair travels with a service dog, her team notes, adding that “the authorities took her dog from her.”

Blair’s rep also highlighted her busy schedule, stating she “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.”

Indeed, Blair has lined up a number of acting gigs including roles on Criminal Minds: Evolution and in independent films Schmoolie the Deathwatcher and Ethan Almighty and told the ADL audience she’s shooting an antisemitism documentary. Her MS has been in remission for close to five years thanks to intensive treatment, and she’s picked up the pieces from a 2024 social media scandal that resulted in career setbacks.

Though Blair had a chaotic experience onboard a flight from Cancun, Mexico to L.A. in 2016, when she began screaming uncontrollably and had to be subdued and taken to the hospital for evaluation after she mixed prescription medication and alcohol, and had bitten fellow celebs Sienna Miller, Seth MacFarlane and Kate Moss, which she blamed on social anxiety and awkwardness, her rep notes that she had “never been arrested before Sunday night.”

Blair’s team also took aim at some of the reports about the actress’ experience earlier this week.

“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 rep’s statement begins. “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.”

In closing, Blair’s rep writes, “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 full statement from Blair’s spokesperson follows.

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. 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. It should be noted Selma 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.