EXCLUSIVE: Selma Blair's Dying Days — 'Cruel Intentions' Actress 'Putting Brave face on MS Battle' After Declaring She's 'Much Happier' Since Illness
Multiple Sclerosis victim Selma Blair continues to put a brave face on the debilitating and life-threatening condition which she used to suppress by downing herself in vats of booze.
The 52-year-old Cruel Intentions actress was diagnosed with the illness that can affect the brain and spinal cord in 2018 but now she's back at work, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Brave Blair walked the red carpet at Elle's recent Women in Hollywood 2024 event without a walking cane or service dog that had been by her side in past years.
And Blair credited her improving health "to a bone marrow treatment and changes in medication".
"I'm back at work and doing things so I will have things to announce," Blair said, adding that she had never thought she'd feel well enough to work again or "get to feel this grounded".
A pal said: "She's one tough cookie and has been remarkably open and frank about her condition and that can only be an inspiration to other sufferers. But there is no getting away from the fact that MS is a life-limiting condition which can scrub up to 10 years off a sufferer's existence so she'll need to continue living well and listening to and taking care of her body."
She endured a risky two-month hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) to try and jumpstart her immune system and admitted that the confirmation of her health status came as something of a relief because she thought she was "making it up" until then.
Blair said: "Once I knew I had MS — which I’d had for a while — things made so much more sense. And I actually became much happier. I’d had these jerks and spasms for many years, and I’d try to suppress them or keep moving or drink excessive amounts of alcohol to stop big things that I thought were mental.
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"I honestly thought I was making it up before I was diagnosed. I just thought, ' Jesus, Selma, you’re very broken inside. Admit it.' I didn’t know I wasn’t broken and that I had brain tissue damage."
The star, who announced in 2021 that she was in remission, admitted that she was "living a lie" until the diagnosis and has now realized that actually her condition is more about how she deals with others than it is about herself.
She added: "I’m so much happier. Yes. There are setbacks and my heart breaks when life goes off the rails. I was a sad person. I wanted joy and good things but I was living a lie because I didn’t know I was sick. I convinced myself I was just that dramatic, weird girl who needed alcohol to not stutter. I could’ve been kinder to myself.
"I realized it’s not about me. It’s about how I deal with people in the world. My stutter or dystonia or lack of ability to function in the sun — if that happens to me, it happens to others."
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