Celebrity News August 17, 2021
Selma Blair Reveals She’s in Remission from MS: ‘My Prognosis Is Great’
Selma Blair is speaking out about her battle with MS, and giving fans an update on how she’s doing after undergoing a stem cell transplant.
The 49-year-old actress appeared at the Discovery+ TCA panel on Monday to promote her upcoming documentary “Introducing, Selma Blair,” where she revealed she’s in remission.
Blair was diagnosed with MS in August 2018, and had suffered a difficult flare-up that left her in pain and struggling to speak or use her left leg. She underwent a stem cell transplant and chemotherapy in 2019 in hopes of restarting her immune system.
According to People, Selma said, "My prognosis is great. I'm in remission. Stem cell put me in remission. It took about a year after stem cell for the inflammation and lesions to really go down."
The star further explained, "I was reluctant to talk about it because I felt this need to be more healed and more fixed. I've accrued a lifetime of some baggage in the brain that still needs a little sorting out or accepting. That took me a minute to get to that acceptance. It doesn't look like this for everyone… I have really felt unwell and misunderstood for so long that it's just, me.”
She went on to talk about her struggles and wanting to be there for her 10-year-old son Arthur. "It's not that MS was on a path killing me,” Selma said. “I mean, it was killing me with this flare lasting so long. I was so burnt out. If there was an option to halt me, to rebalance after being hit so hard with that last flare, it's absolutely for my son. I have no desire to leave him alone right now."
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View StoryThe “Cruel Intentions” star said her journey has given her a new perspective. "People took great care of me. I never really liked life. I do now — strange, huh? Just because life's so weird. I was so scared in life. To suddenly start to find an identity and a safety in me, to figure out boundaries, time management, and energy. I'm having the time of my life."
She says helping others with her story “means everything to me.”
"To hear even just me showing up with a cane or sharing something that might be embarrassing, it was a key for a lot of people in finding comfort in themselves and that means everything to me," Blair explained. "I'm thrilled that I have some platform. In no means am I saying that I'm speaking for all people in this condition or any condition of chronic illness, I'm speaking my story and I that helps normalize one thing to open the door for other people to be comfortable in telling their stories. I'm thrilled to have this here."
Selma is lifting the curtain on her life even more in “Introducing, Selma Blair,” which opens in theaters October 15, followed by a Discovery+ debut on October 21.