This is one of the wildest celebrity stories of the week. You know how many celebrities hate when regular people notice them or slyly take photos of them when the celebrities are out and about in real life? Well, Hilary Swank is one of those celebs. Not only does she hate it when a regular person takes her photo, she will get in that person’s face about it, even if she has no idea if the person actually took a photo. Apparently, Hilary Swank got in some woman’s face at LAX. The problem? The woman claims she didn’t take Swank’s photo. Oh, and the woman was actually taking her two kids on a Make-a-Wish trip to Disneyland. OMG.
Hilary Swank has allegedly apologized after a tense encounter with a woman she thought was taking her photo at LAX airport in Los Angeles.
“At baggage claim, I was walking next to Hilary Swank,” Jada Bafus told The Daily Mail on Wednesday, December 10, per Page Six. “And I did a double take on her because it’s Hilary Swank and I am a fan of her movies and stuff.”
Bafus had been at the airport with her sons Mason, 7, and Jack, 4, whom she was taking to Disneyland on a Make-a-Wish vacation. The boys have Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a genetic disorder that causes progressive loss of muscle. Bafus said she took out her phone “because I got distracted” while trying to find her kids and husband.
“I just looked, like, you know, I was trying to call my husband,” she recalled. “I wasn’t taking a picture.”
According to Page Six, Bafus had previously described the alleged encounter via a recent Instagram post, quoting Swank, 51, as saying, “You got what you needed? Get what you came for? Enjoy that picture.”
“Ma’am … I wasn’t trying a picture of you,” Bafus wrote, according to the outlet. “I was trying to find my 2 terminally ill boys at baggage claim. But thanks for poking at a stressed mom on her kid’s Make-a-Wish trip. Iconic timing because she lived here in Spokane long ago!”
Adding an upside-down smiley face emoji, Bafus added: “So random!”
In her interview with The Daily Mail, Bafus said that Swank “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.”
She added, however, that the two-time Oscar winner reached out directly to apologize to her via Instagram and explained that she had not wanted her 2-year-old twins, Aya and Ohm, being photographed.
“I did not expect Hilary Swank to directly talk to me,” Bafus said. “It was just, like, a ‘Woah.’ I was taken aback.”
Bafus’ husband, Bryan, called the interaction “unexpected” and wondered why Swank would “snap back at anybody when you’re in that profession” but noted that they’re “not upset” at her.
As Us Weekly notes, Swank did apologize on Instagram and asked that the woman not share it. The only thing I’ll say in Swank’s defense is that everyone’s stressed out at the airport, and Swank apparently had her kids with her, which added to the dispute (Swank thought that the woman was taking photos of her kids). But yeah…if this woman is to be believed, Swank was extremely rude, and that’s before we even get to the part about the woman traveling with her sons on a Make-a-Wish trip. I hope Hilary Swank felt like sh-t! I would in her place. I once texted something bitchy to my lawn guy, not realizing that he and his wife had just welcomed their first child the day before. I could not apologize fast enough! I still feel like sh-t about that.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Hilary Swank bei der Premiere des Kinofilms Ordinary Angels im SVA Theater. New York, 19.02.2024 *** Hilary Swank at the premiere of the movie Ordinary Angels at the SVA Theater New York, 19 02 2024 Foto:xB.xHinex/xFuturexImagex angels_4256,Image: 848658446, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Barbara Hine/Avalon
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- NORTH HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – APRIL 10: American actress and film producer Hilary Swank arrives at Showtime’s ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Emmy FYC (For Your Consideration) Event held at the Wolf Theatre at the Saban Media Center at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences on April 10, 2025 in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 986524812, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Hilary Swank, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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- NORTH HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – APRIL 10: American actress and film producer Hilary Swank arrives at Showtime’s ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Emmy FYC (For Your Consideration) Event held at the Wolf Theatre at the Saban Media Center at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences on April 10, 2025 in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 986524950, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Hilary Swank, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
It’s a really bitchy thing to say but in her defense, if she genuinely thought someone was taking a pic of her I get why she’d be annoyed. I just don’t understand the need to say something so rude. I’m sure it’s not the first time that’s happened–she is a celebrity after all–kinda comes with the territory. She probably felt like shit afterwards. I know I would.
She seems a little sensitive to the whole picture thing. She was in public, in an airport no less. There is video being taken of her in an airport. If she were at dinner, I get it, but sounds like she was walking. Many folks do not seem to realize that when you are in public, folks can take your pic without permission. I have no doubt that fans do invasive, rude stuff, but someone snapping a pic while you are walking is not it.
Yikes. I would melt from the shame of it all.
Is the Daily Mail like everywhere? Between 8 billion smart phones in the world, 10 billion surveillance cameras, a planetary ring of satellites and the Daily Mail, nobody can say a word without 6 billion people on social media having something to say about it.
They pay for stories
Before they get to the payment part, they have to be scouring social media non-stop. Why would they pick up on a random somebody’s Insta post? Unless, maybe the mom tagged Swank and that triggered a celebrity alert at the DM.
I am sorry but the only reasonable thing for her to do is to make a donation to this family. I would and I am broke. She has millions.
It doesn’t have to be a lot – but maybe some spending money at Disneyland would be a wonderful gesture.
She thought the woman was taking pics of her children, I’d be pissed too. It’s not this woman was wearing a shirt with her sick kids face on it, the kids weren’t even with her. For all Hilary knew this was just some random weirdo taking pics of her kids like the paps would.
Agreed. In fact, i think she could sponsor another trip for that family on her own dime.
Meh, at least if the reporting is true, Swank felt implored on her own accord to reach out and apologize. It’s still pretty shitty, but everyone has bad days.
Yikes! But in Swank’s defense LAX is swarming with paparazzi and all the celebrities they catch there look super annoyed and pissed off. But most of them are smart enough not to engage and say anything because what’s the point? So I guess Hillary has learned that lesson now.
This is definitely something we’ve all done and one of the few times that karma strikes back immediately. As I’ve gotten older, when I find myself annoyed/angry with someone I take a breath and try not to react with my first inclination, it’s saved me several times that I know of.
Three sides to every story.
Agree. If I take out my phone to make a call there is no way anyone could look at me and assume that I am taking their picture.
Two things can be true: that the woman was taking her children on a Make-a-wish trip AND that she was caught in the very act of attempting to take a photograph of the celebrity, presumably to show her missing husband and kids who she had seen.
Repeatedly bringing up the Make-a-Wish trip to guilt trip is sus to me.
I agree. And like… sharing it with the world too?
Agreed. Exploiting your children’s illnesses on social media to get a reaction is not a cool thing to do.
Wow, way harsh. And not at all what was reported!
Might not be a popular opinion, but as a photographer, Swank was in public and has zero legal or actual expectations of privacy, and therefore, can be photographed. Pictures of children are another story but legally, the woman could take pictures of her all day long at that airport.
Example number 5,455 of someone showing us who they really are. An entitled jackass.
As a lawyer, I’d remind you that legality is not the test for polite behavior. Hilary didn’t call the cops on the lady, she snapped at her for what she perceived as rude behavior. The law has nothing to do with it. And saying you “legally” can take pictures of people all day long because they are in public is true legally and also totally irrelevant as to whether you may in fact still be behaving like an ass and told so (this lady was not, it was a misunderstanding, but the point remains).
Except she didn’t say the lady couldn’t take her picture. She was annoyed and terse (I’m not even going to say rude, she didn’t swear or name call) because she mistakenly believed someone photographed her kids. I’m no one and I might react similarly.
I’m actually team no one was wrong here, especially since Swank followed up with an apology.
Absolutely agree with both LadyE and Tuesday, just frustrating that it is becoming so hard to move through the world without having someone be rude. A true sign of older age to say this, but why can’t people be kinder and more accepting of each other? The downside of individualism-everyone has to have their way, everyone else be damned.
Just because something isn’t illegal doesn’t mean it’s right. This woman is over reacting. She didn’t have her children with her at the moment, Hilary didn’t know she was on a mak a wish trip with sick kids. For all she knew it was a papparazzo looking to sell pics of her kids.
She should have laughed and asked why anybody would want to sneak a photo of Karate Kid 3
Meh. Swank snapped briefly after a misunderstanding and then later apologized. It doesn’t make her look great, but it was a mistake. And of course this other woman now has to “tell her story” to the Daily Mail, as though this was anything more than a minute out of her day. Come on. Living one’s life under that kind of microscope is exactly what makes people hypersensitive.
Meh, not great, but also pretty misleading in my view. If this lady had been with her kids or family, Hilary may not have reacted that way. By her own account, she was by herself and whipped out her phone. Hilary shouldn’t have snapped at her, but this is hardly Hilary yells at Make-A-Wish family. The kids and hubby weren’t there. No one was rude to them and they weren’t at all affected by this.
Agreed.
Yeah, it’s just another opportunity for the DM to make a woman look bad, particularly a successful woman.
That is definitely embarrassing and cringey but you never hear anything bad about Hilary. Like Kaiser wrote the airport is stressful and she may have been traveling with her twin babies — that would absolutely stress me out. Add on top of that the paparazzi swarming that airport and she’s definitely on edge.
I am so confused. Why was this woman in baggage claim if they hadn’t even gone on the trip yet? I think the article has some tenses mixed up. Either way, it was a crappy thing for her to do and she apologized. Someone was shooting me the evil eye in a restaurant yesterday because I had on a mask. I almost confronted them, but you gotta pick your battles.
I swear, every time I honk at a vehicle while driving, it ends up having a disability plate and then I spend the rest of that day, hanging my head in shame.
I think everyone — me included, but also Hilary Swank — needs to chill a bit. But that’s hard, given the hellscape we’re living in. I’m glad she apologized.
I think her reaction was completely fine? She thought she was protecting her children from a threat and it was a pretty mild scold, honestly. When it became clear that she made a mistake, she apologized. Isn’t that emotional maturity in action?
I don’t know. It’s a bit of a weird story. The woman was alone, she apparently recognized Hillary Swank, and had her phone out. The Make a wish kids weren’t even around. And then talking to trashy Daily Mail about it?
Doesn’t sound that innocent to me.
A hat and some sunglasses and perhaps similar accessories on her kids could have gone a long way toward protecting Ms. Swank’s identity and privacy here. I would not have recognized her in an airport. But damn, whenever I hear her name in the future, this will be the story that comes to mind.
So — H. Swank thought a random stranger was taking pictures of her and/or her kids and made a snarky comment. Later, she learned it was a make a wish Mom and reached out to apologize.
Meanwhile; make a wish Mom shops the story to the tabloids in order to capitalize on the situation (because how else would we know?).
Who exactly is supposed to be the jerk here?
I don’t really judge either party in this situation. Hilary was a bit hasty in jumping down this woman’s throat, but I’m sure that’s the result of experience. I mean, this is a woman whose appearance has been dissected by the public and the media and who has talked openly about wanting to keep her children from being photographed. She probably shouldn’t have come down so hard on this lady but she didn’t know she was on a Make a Wish trip and i’m sure her picture has been taken in the past, in precisely this manner.
I think Swank messed up and it’s good that she apologized. But once you go and do interviews about it (especially the DM), you’re done. You’re the a-hole now.
This is where I come down too, SuperJosh
She was snappy and made the wrong assumptuon, but this story is kind of underwhelming. She didn’t even swear…
If this were Reddit, I’d say NAH – 2 moms doing their best.
We sure are quick to hate on a woman who makes a mistake. And god forbid the woman says ‘my bad I messed up afterward.” Let’s do better people. Really. At the end of the day, Hilary Swank made an assumption that would be easy to make under the circumstances. She reached out to apologize. The end. No need for pitchforks.
I wish we held men to one tenth the ridiculous standards we hold women to.
Hear hear non story and since I’ve never heard anything about Hillary being awful who cares
I’m too distracted by the pretentious, weird celebrity names Hillary gave her kids.
Is reaching out via Instagram considered ‘reaching out directly’? I wouldn’t have thought so, but I’m an old. 🤷♀️
Very uncomfortable situation, but as someone who lives in LA, I see people following celebrities into stores / restaurants and shamelessly photographing them on a regular basis. As in, actually following them into Starbucks, phone out, calling their name to get them to turn around. Sure, I guess it’s part of fame, but really an invasion of privacy and a security issue if you’re photographing someone in their own neighborhood or at establishments they frequent (or their kids / pets). I can understand why Hilary freaked out.