Hilary Swank reportedly apologizes for rant against Make-A-Wish mom

Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank has allegedly apologized over a tense airport encounter she had with another mother, who was taking her terminally ill sons on a  Make-A-Wish trip to Disneyland.

The mother, Jada Bafus, told the Daily Mail that Swank yelled at her in the baggage claim area at Los Angeles International Airport last week because Swank mistakenly believed that the Spokane, Washington resident was trying to sneak a photo of her with her twin toddlers.

According to Bafus, Swank reportedly snapped: “I hope you enjoy that picture!”

Bafus explained to the Daily Mail that she was trying to meet up with her husband and sons, Mason, 7, and Jack, 4, in the baggage claim area so that they could head to Disneyland in nearby Anaheim. Mason and his brother Jack, 4, both suffer from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, an incurable disease that mainly affects boys, causes skeletal and heart muscle weakness and worsens over time. The Make-a-Wish Foundation had helped organized the trip for Mason, with Jack getting to tag along.

But instead of immediately finding her husband and sons, Bafus ran into Swank. She said she was walking next to Swank, “and I did a double take on her because it’s Hilary Swank and I am a fan of her movies and stuff.”

After spotting Swank, Bafus said she took out her phone, but only because she was trying to find her husband, Bryan, and their sons.

“I was trying to call him and I think I just took my phone out the wrong time,” Bafus told the Daily Mail. “She just thought I was taking a picture of her. She was having a bad day.”

When Swank snapped, Bafus said she told her, “I was trying to call my husband. I wasn’t taking a picture.” With that, Swank “stormed off,” Bafus also said.

On Instagram, Bafus also said that Swank barked at her: “You get what you needed? Get you what came for?”

Bafus also wrote, according to Page Six: “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 told the Daily Mail that Swank subsequently contacted her to apologize and to say that she was worried about her toddler twins being photographed. Swank, 51, is married to entrepreneur Philip Schneider, and the couple welcomed their son and daughter, Ohm and Aya, in 2023. She has never shared any photos of their faces with her 1.6 million Instagram followers.

“I did not expect Hilary Swank to directly talk to me,” Bafus told the Daily Mail. “It was just like a ‘woah, I was taken back.'”

Bafus said Swank sent a follow-up message, asking if there was anything she could do to help the family. She and her husband said they bear Swank no ill will and said their dealing with her did not ruin their trip to Disneyland.

“They treated us so well,” Bafus said of Make-A-Wish staff and workers at the theme park.