For Selma Blair, having her son was a turning point in her long journey to getting diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
The 53-year-old actress opened up about that journey during an October 9 conversation at the 2025 Flow Space Women’s Health Summit, revealing that her MS symptoms were mistaken for being part of the normal changes women go through after having a baby, forcing her to try to ignore her health issues for several years.
“After I gave birth, it was a new world for me. Of course, it was said, this is postpartum depression. Oh, everyone’s ligaments hurt after a baby, you know? I didn’t know. I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’ve always been pretty wimpy,’” Blair told SHE Media CEO Samantha Skey of having her son, Arthur, in 2011 with then-boyfriend Jason Bleick.
Between dealing with a not-yet-diagnosed autoimmune disorder and caring for a baby, Blair didn’t have a lot of time or energy for work.
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Samantha Skey & Selma Blair speak onstage during the ‘In Conversation With: Selma Blair’ panel at Flow Space Women’s Health Summit October 2025 at Penske Media Rooftop on October 09, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Michael Buckner/SHE Media
“I was really struggling,” Blair said. “After I had my son, I had worked a little bit on a show, and it was a lot. When that ended, I didn’t work. I stayed home with my son and spent my savings, and wondered when I would ever wake up. I just couldn’t get it together.”
Blair, who only worked sporadically for the first four years of her son’s life, eventually decided it was time to push for some kind of medical assistance. She noted later in the conversation that her son gave her the strength, “When we have a kid and we have to do something. What else is there to do? We just do it.”
Finally, in front of yet another doctor, Blair was taken seriously — likely, she says, because she was falling asleep in the doctor’s office.
Blair went public with her MS diagnosis in 2018 and has since become a leading activist for MS awareness. Her condition has also been in remission since 2021, as she told Flow Space in an October 8 cover story, “I’m going to live longer than I ever thought!”
And most importantly, Blair’s son, now 14, is still an important part of her recovery. “He knows when I might be having low blood sugar that leads to a flare and makes sure that I have a snack,” she told Flow Space. “He does the little things I used to, like cut the tomatoes in the salami and make sure I have water. And he’ll put me to bed occasionally.”
