Hilary Swank has apologized after snapping at a mom for seemingly taking her picture at the airport without her permission.
Jada Bafus, who was taking her two terminally ill sons, Mason, 7, and Jack, 4, on a trip to Disneyland, said she happened to spot the Oscar winner at Los Angeles’ LAX airport during the Make-A-Wish trip.
“At baggage claim, I was walking next to Hilary Swank,” Bafus said, according to the Daily Mail. “And I did a double take on her because it’s Hilary Swank and I am a fan of her movies and stuff.”
Bafus said she took out her phone “because I got distracted and trying to find my Make-A-Wish kids and my husband.”
“I just looked, like you know, I was trying to call my husband. I wasn’t taking a picture.”
On social media, Bafus detailed that Swank said to her, “You got what you needed? Get what you came for? Enjoy that picture.”
Bafus claimed that Swank “stormed off a little bit” following the encounter.
“It just hurt my feelings because I was starting my son’s Make-A-Wish trip, which she wouldn’t have known, but just one of those situations where it was one of my first encounters with a celebrity so I thought it was a little comical,” Bafus said.
“We just don’t know what others are going through and I was just a stressed mom trying to navigate LAX.“
Bafus’ sons are battling Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a rare genetic disorder defined by extreme muscle weakness caused by progressive muscle degeneration. The condition is terminal and typically leads to loss of mobility by age 12 and a shortened lifespan.
Bafus later noted that Swank reached out with an apology.
She told the outlet that Swank reached out via Instagram to apologize, and explain she was worried about her twin toddlers, Aya and Ohm, being photographed.
Bafus asked that the apology, which she shared with the outlet, not be reproduced. She expressed shock that Swank reached out.
“I did not expect Hilary Swank to directly talk to me,” she said. “It was just like a ‘Woah, I was taken aback.’”
Bafus’ husband, Bryan, said the encounter was “unexpected at the start of our trip” and wondered why a two-time Oscar winner would be concerned about cameras.
“To snap back at anybody when you’re in that profession is kind of like ,,, I don’t know — it is what it is,” he said, per the outlet, adding that the couple is “not upset” at Swank.
A rep for the “Boys Don’t Cry” actress did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.
Swank announced that she welcomed her twins with husband Philip Schneider in April 2023, and has never shared photos of their faces via social media.
“I thought that it would be like this dream, but it’s dreamier than I ever imagined,” she told Today of becoming a mom, in a February 2024 interview.
“It blows open my whole world in the most beautiful way.”
Read the full article here
