Hilary Swank went above and beyond when apologizing for “snapping” at a Washington mom of two terminally ill boys at Los Angeles International Airport.
The mom, Jada Bafus — whose sons suffer from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a severe genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle weakness and loss — first posted about the run-in on Instagram, saying that was not how she expected her family’s Make-A-Wish trip to Disneyland to begin.
Not only did the post go viral, but it caught the attention of Swank herself, who immediately slid into Bafus’ DMs to “apologize” and offer both “sympathy” and “praise.”
“She also took the time to learn about our family,” Bafus told Page Six in an interview Thursday, saying the women quickly came to realize it was a case of “two triggered mothers” having a “human misunderstanding.”
Bafus acknowledged that she noticed the actress — and her 2-year-old twins — at baggage claim at LAX but was preoccupied with trying to call her husband, Bryan Bafus, who was with their children, Mason, 7, and Jack, 4.
However, to Swank, 51, it appeared that Jada was trying to sneak a photo of her toddlers, whose faces she’s never shown publicly.
In her since-deleted Instagram post, Jada claimed the movie star said to her, “You got what you needed? Get what you came for? Enjoy that picture.”
Jada now realizes that Swank was just “trying to protect her kids from getting photographed.”
“We both apologized to each other,” Jada told us, lamenting that she feels “bad” that the ordeal “got twisted into a negative light.”
Not only did she not expect to hear from Swank, but she also didn’t expect the Oscar winner to be able to “relate” to her situation.
“It turns out that she has a personal connection with the disease, so she was able to have a connection with me,” Jada shared without elaborating further.
She hopes something positive will come from the incident, as her only “goal” is to raise awareness about DMD, which significantly affects both quality of life and life expectancy.
In fact, Jada and Bryan have taken to social media to document their sons’ medical journeys. They are hopeful that the FDA will soon approve several treatments in the pipeline.
Despite the minor hiccup at the start of their Make-A-Wish trip, Jada told us Mason and Jack “had an absolute blast the entire time” they were at Disneyland, where they were treated like royalty.
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