Selma Blair’s Battle With Multiple Sclerosis in Her Own Words

Working through her diagnosis. In the years since Selma Blair found out she had multiple sclerosis, the actress has been candid about navigating her new normal.

The Michigan native rose to fame starring in hit movies, including Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde and After. Amid her notable Hollywood career, she announced in October 2018 that she had been diagnosed with MS.

“I was in this wardrobe fitting two days ago. And I am in the deepest gratitude. So profound, it is, I have decided to share,” Blair wrote in an October 2018 Instagram post at the time. “The brilliant costumer #Allisaswanson not only designs the pieces #harperglass will wear on this new #Netflix show, but she carefully gets my legs in my pants, pulls my tops over my head, buttons my coats and offers her shoulder to steady myself. I have #multiplesclerosis.”

She continued at the time: “I am in an exacerbation. By the grace of the lord, and will power and the understanding producers at Netflix, I have a job. A wonderful job. I am disabled. I fall sometimes. I drop things. My memory is foggy. And my left side is asking for directions from a broken gps. But we are doing it. And I laugh and I don’t know exactly what I will do precisely but I will do my best.”

Through the years, Blair — who shares son Arthur with ex Jason Bleick — has been candid about her health challenges, even starring in a documentary about her diagnosis, Introducing, Selma Blair.

“We have a long time to be dead and I spent so long trying to kill myself, or numb myself, or check out — or figure out how to be alive by being half dead,” the American Crime Story alum said in the documentary, which premiered in March 2021. “And now I just want to help other people feel better.”

As Blair navigated her MS battle, she decided to sign up for Dancing With the Stars season 31.

“Once I actually stood with Sasha [Farber, my DWTS partner] and really realized, like, ‘Oh, he can help me in general,’” she told Us Weekly in September 2022 ahead of the Disney+ premiere. “[I’m] so excited for camaraderie, for support [from] people. I did not realize how much I missed that and … there were terror and nerves [because] I don’t have experience dancing, like, with steps, I can pose like a dancer for maybe two seconds.”

She added: “Once I decided [to join the show] and convinced my team that I could do this [and] that it wasn’t gonna be too dangerous for me that I could do this [because] we do these things we wanna find joy in and then I’m all in.”

Before her official DWTS debut, Blair attended the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards in September 2022. Walking onto the stage with her cane to present the final award of the night, Outstanding Drama Series, she was met with a standing ovation from the crowd.

Scroll below to revisit everything the Sweetest Thing star has said about her health challenges through the years: