Selma Blair says she’s in remission from MS after stem cell transplant

Selma Blair has some good news to share on the health front: her multiple sclerosis (MS) is officially in remission.

Blair shared the update on August 16 during the summer Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour while participating in a panel for her upcoming Discovery documentary, Introducing Selma Blair. There, she opened up to reporters about her struggle with the condition and how she’s doing after going through an intense stem cell transplant in 2019.

“My prognosis is great,” the 49-year-old told reporters, including Etalk. “I mean, I'm in remission. Stem cell, absolutely; HSCT [Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation] put me in remission. It took about a year after stem cell for the inflammation and lesions to really go down.”

Blair was hesitant to give updates at first. “I was reluctant to talk about it, because I felt this need to be more healed, more fixed, since I put it out there,” she said. “I'm doing this thing. I had accrued a lifetime of some baggage in the brain that will still need a little sorting out or accepting. So that took me a minute to get to that acceptance. It doesn't look like this for everyone.”

Blair revealed she had been diagnosed with MS in August 2018. In the past she has spoken out about how the disease left her with intense, painful flairs and physical struggles. She also lost the ability to fully use her left leg. By 2019 she decided to pursue the stem cell treatments, followed by a round of chemo.

Introducing Selma Blair (which debuts in the U.S. in October but doesn’t have a Canadian premiere date yet), features Blair highlighting her journey with MS and baring all in order to educate and raise awareness about the condition.

“It was my hope to be able to share that time of looking to HSCT and that process and what I was going through as a mom and just someone getting a big diagnosis,” she said during the TCA panel. “I don't have advice. I just wanted to lead by example of saying this is just where I am… Everyone’s journey is their own so I can only speak for myself.”

According to director Rachel Fleit, Blair’s willingness to showcase her story makes for a raw and unfiltered film that may take some fans by surprise. “Selma was ready to tell this story in all of its honesty and rawness and truth,” she said. “And she had a few medical emergencies in the midst of this and I knew that I needed to document [them],” she continued.

“Her notoriety is actually what makes this so unique, her willingness to share. I mean, you see in the trailer, there are moments, she's going through really intense moments in her journey with the stem cell transplant, where there's no hair and makeup.”

“There was no hair and makeup in any of this,” Blair added. “It's like my mother would've plotzed if she were alive to see me on film like this.”

BEFORE YOU GO: Selma Blair reveals she ‘was told to make plans for dying’

[video_embed id='2259795']BEFORE YOU GO: Selma Blair reveals she ‘was told to make plans for dying’ [/video_embed]