Hilary Swank allegedly had a tense encounter with the mother of two terminally ill children at LAX airport.
Jada Bafus, who was taking her sons, Mason, 7, and Jack, 4, on a Make-A-Wish trip to Disneyland, claimed that Swank, 51, snapped at her when she mistakenly thought Bafus was taking a picture of the actress’s 2-year-old twins, Aya and Ohm.
“At baggage claim, I was walking next to Hilary Swank,” Bafus shared in a since-deleted Instagram post, 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.”
“And then I took my phone out because I got distracted and trying to find my Make-A-Wish kids and my husband,” Bafus added. “I was trying to call him and I think I just took my phone out the wrong time. She just thought I was taking a picture of her. She was having a bad day.”
Swank allegedly told Bafus, “I hope you enjoy that picture,” and then “stormed off a little bit.”
“It was just the wrong, wrong place one time,” Bafus told the outlet. “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 added, “We just don’t know what others are going through and I was just a stressed mom trying to navigate LAX.”
Bafus’ two sons have Duchenne muscular dystrophy, an incurable genetic disorder that causes skeletal and heart muscle weakness that quickly gets worse with time, according to the Mayo Clinic. The disease mainly affects boys and typically causes loss of mobility by age 12.
Bafus claimed that Swank apologized to her via Instagram and explained that she was worried about her twins being photographed.
Bafus shared Swank’s apology with the Daily Mail but asked for it to not be reproduced.
“I did not expect Hilary Swank to directly talk to me,” Bafus said. “It was just like a ‘Woah, I was taken aback.’”
The Post has reached out to Swank’s rep for comment.
Bafus’ husband, Bryan, said he was confused why the two-time Oscar winner cared about the cameras at the airport.
“I think when you’re in that type of — I guess that’s your job on getting filmed in that type of stuff, I feel like it shouldn’t be out of the realm to have your picture taken,” Bryan said.
“And Jada wasn’t necessarily taking photos of her, to snap back at anybody when you’re in that profession is kind of like work, I don’t know — it is what it is,” he added.
Bryan noted that the couple is “not upset” with Swank.
Swank and her husband, Philip Schneider, welcomed their twins in April 2023.
“It wasn’t easy. But boy (and girl!) was it worth it. 👼🏼🤍👼🏼,” the “Yellowjackets” actress captioned her Instagram announcement at the time. “Happy Easter! 🐣🐣 Posting from pure Heaven. 🙌🏽.”
During an October 2022 appearance on “Good Morning America,” Swank gushed over expanding her family.
“This is something that I’ve been wanting for a long time,” she said. “My next thing is I’m gonna be a mom. And not just of one but of two.”
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