Selma Blair stepped down from ‘Dancing With The Stars’ for her health
The actress has been battling Multiple Sclerosis since 2018.
The Dancing With The Stars stage will shine a little less brightly moving forward. Selma Blair, a fan-favorite since the start of the season, announced Monday she would be stepping down from the competition due to her multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis.
"I had these MRIs and the results came back, and it all adds up to — I can’t, I can’t go on with the competition,” she told her dance partner, Sasha Farber, in a pre-recorded scene that aired during Monday’s episode. “I pushed as far as I could.” Talking to the camera, she continued, “With a chronic illness, you do have special considerations, and my body is definitely taking a hit. It's way too much for the safety of my bones. There's just intensive bone trauma and inflammation among rips and tears so I could do extensive damage that of course, I do not want."
The pair performed for the last time on Monday. Following their final dance — a waltz to “What the World Needs Now” — the judges tearfully commended Blair on being an inspiration to not only them, but also to viewers everywhere. Blair and Farber were awarded 10s across the board for a perfect total of 40/40.
"It's so hard for me to take care because I don't want to, 'cause I want to be here," Blair admitted to the judges. "But I know as a mom and someone that also wants to represent some people that are taking chances and sometimes there are just consequences to any chance you take. And mine is fine. I'm going to be okay."
The actress was first diagnosed with MS in 2018, and has been open about her health journey since. The chronic immune disease, which impacts the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves, primarily attacks the central nervous system, making tasks like walking nearly impossible.
Blair’s MS is currently in remission due to a life-altering stem cell and chemotherapy treatment she underwent in 2019 — which she opened up about in depth in her documentary, Introducing, Selma Blair, filmed that same year. While the disease is incurable, Blair is grateful for the strides it’s allowed her to take. “I never really liked life. I do now — strange, huh?" she said during a discovery+ TCA panel last year after announcing her remission, per People. "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."
As for her decision to join Dancing With The Stars, "It is for the viewer, because that is what has given me support,” she previously told E! News. “In dark times in my life, there are people that have come forward — strangers on the street or on Instagram, my original fans ... I'm doing it for them.”
