After an inspiring run, Selma Blair is taking her final bow on “Dancing With the Stars.” The 50-year-old actress became a fan favorite thanks to her elegant dancing and determination to compete through the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS), but she says that the demands the show placed on her body ultimately became too much to push through.
“I had these MRIs and the results came back and it just all adds up to I can’t go on with the competition,” she explains to partner Sasha Farber in the episode on Disney+. “With a chronic illness, you do have special considerations. 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 . . . I could do extensive damage that, of course, I do not want.” Blair and Farber paired up for one final, emotional dance: a waltz set to “What the World Needs Now.”
Blair has been open about the health effects of MS since her diagnosis in 2018. “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,” she wrote after sharing her diagnosis. MS affects the central nervous system (including the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves) and occurs when the immune system is triggered to attack these organs. It can cause symptoms like numbness, mood changes, memory issues, fatigue, blindness, and/or paralysis, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. There are treatment options but currently no cure.
For Blair, the decision to leave “DWTS” came after an MRI on her knee last week, according to Entertainment Weekly, which prompted her doctor to recommend rehearsing in a non-weight-bearing way (such as in a pool). Still, Blair was determined to have one final moment on stage. “Sometimes you make hard decisions, but I really want to have a last beautiful dance with you and bow out,” she tells Farber. “This is a dance for everyone who had tried and hoped they could do more, but also the power in realizing when it’s time to walk away.”
