The latest episode of Dancing with the Stars streamed live on Disney+ on Monday night, and a particularly emotional moment came at the end of the “Most Memorable Year” episode. It was announced that actress Selma Blair, who had stood out as a fan favorite on this season with dancing partner Sasha Farber, was dropping out of the competition. This revelation was revealed in a video of Blair informing Farber that she needed to leave immediately due to health issues related to multiple sclerosis.
“I can’t go on with the competition. I pushed as far as I could. I’m so sorry, Sash,” Blair said as both contestants broke down into tears. “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.”
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As the tears continue to flow, Blair adds, “I’ll have to settle in and get back to being a mom and showing them I have to pull back on something I love doing, and sometimes you make hard decisions, but I really want to have the last beautiful dance with you.”
Blair and Farber then performed their final dance, a simple waltz set to “What the World Needs Now.” All of the judges unanimously gave the dance perfect scores, earning the two a 40, before saying their goodbyes to the contestants.
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Will Selma Blair Return for the Finale?
“I didn’t think I’d even have this earnestness in my lifetime to genuinely want to do this and for risk of embarrassment,” Blair also told Variety about joining Dancing with the Stars in the first place. “Forgetting my disabilities or my chronic illness, I wasn’t an accomplished dancer at all. So it’s always scary to put it out there. Seeing how every dancer that has come on this show this season has been truly a top-notch star, that makes me realize something really big about our perceptions of people or certain shows or what we think.”
She continued, “This is gold here. What these celebrities and pros put together is real passion of some kind of self-love, acceptance and performance. It’s a really wonderful reminder and to be embraced by these people, my heart is broken in the best way.”
It’s unclear if Blair will return for the finale, although she did say she had “high hopes” of doing so. Farber wasn’t quite so sure, feeling that Blair’s health was what was most important and that there should be no pressure whatsoever for a return.
“We gotta look after her health and her body, that’s priority number one,” he said, though he added just how proud he was to have taken this journey with Blair, even if it was cut short.
“There isn’t enough words to tell to say how proud I am,” he mentioned, noting how Blair had also been there for him with his own personal struggles. “She is a true inspiration. She has not only inspired myself, but so many people around the world. And I’m saying world not just America, because we’ve been getting so much support from overseas. There’s nothing that this lady can’t do. This lady right here is an incredible mother, an amazing, iconic actress and a phenomenal dancer. And I couldn’t be more proud.”
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