In January, Natasha Lyonne announced that she’d relapsed after two decades of sobriety. In late March, she broke her silence on the topic to reassure fans that she was doing much better but would be keeping her journey private for the time being. Last Tuesday, Natasha walked her first red carpet since January for the Euphoria season three premiere. It was held in Los Angeles. Natasha was scheduled to appear on the Drew Barrymore Show on Wednesday, so she had a red-eye flight back to New York City. What should have been an uneventful trip in first class ended up going sideways. After appearing to be out of it and refusing to answer flight attendants’ routine requests to fasten her seatbelt and stow her laptop, Natasha ended up getting kicked off the plane.
On Thursday, Natasha responded by posting that she had been looking forward to talking to Drew and that her heart went out to the unpaid TSA officers. She made it back to New York on a different flight in time to go to the NYC premiere of Lorne. On Friday, Natasha released a more detailed statement about the incident. She wrote that she’d taken a sleeping pill after boarding so she could sleep through the flight and then go straight to the show. Natasha also wrote that she was detained by ICE. Here’s what she tweeted:
Thanks for the great reporting, @enews. Indeed, I took a Lunesta once seated, to ensure some shut eye on the Delta One red eye flight to NYC. Boarded seamlessly with just a backpack and sneakers, eager for a nap. Plan was to be bushy tailed & beauty rested, as I was meant to head straight to glam for a slot with our beloved @DrewBarrymore, upon landing. Was looking forward to seeing Drew & an in depth convo, but I guess ICE had other plans & I was detained instead. Sign of the times, I guess. Thanks for all the love and support. Never had a problem with @Delta or @TSA before. Heart is with our unpaid @TSA workers. Apologies to any travelers who were delayed.
The ICE claims are shocking because, to my recollection, we don’t have any accusations of ICE removing potentially inebriated passengers *that look like Natasha* from flights. There are also no solid reports of ICE being at LAX. Mr. Rosie had to fly in and out of there for work last month. He has TSA PreCheck but still arrived four hours early as a precaution. He was shocked at how it was one of the most orderly, chill experiences he’s ever had flying out of there.
I don’t really know what to make of the sleeping pill explanation. I have no experience with Lunesta, but on occasion, have taken Trazodone or Tylenol/Advil PM (not at the same time). Both have taken at least 45 minutes to make me sleepy and neither has made me so loopy that I didn’t know where I was. First class gets to board first so it’s feasible that Natasha took it as soon as she sat down, waited as the flight boarded and that it affected her in that time. There’s no video yet of Natasha on the plane, but we’ve seen the red carpet video of her at the Euphoria premiere. I feel like a broken record saying it at this point, but I really like Natasha and am rooting for her. I hope she’s getting the help she needs. She’s such a bright light in this crazy world.
Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon, Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, Roger Wong/INSTARimages
There is credibility to this. Lunesta didn’t work at all for me, but I do use Ambien. I remember a couple of incidents where I “slept ate” a leftover Starbucks muffin, I had a conversation with a friend who’d called *just* as I was getting drowsy, and had *no* recollection of it the next morning (I did call him back just to make sure I didn’t say/do anything embarrassing! Lol), and once, I trimmed my side bangs (woke up to little hairs on the sink).
I wish I could sleep w/out the aid, but ever since insomnia hit me with a sledge hammer at the onset of menopause, I can’t sleep without it. Benadryl worked, but then all that stuff came out that it (along with ZZZQuill) can help bring on dementia… yikes!
I think it’s both plausible and a boiler plate denial. Either way, she’s taking responsibility and not escalating the situation. That said, a seasoned flyer would know to stow the laptop and buckle the seatbelt before entering a pill induced haze. That’s why I doubt it was just about a pill.
Oh, I totally agree! Buckling up as soon as you sit is usually standard (esp in 1st class, as usually you’re in your own “pod” seat).
No. There isn’t. She just relapsed and could barely stand on the Euphoria carpet. This is heroin or pills. She was nodding off on the flight.
Lunesta is VERY different from Ambien. Does not work the same way at all. Ambien is known for the side effects you described. Lunesta is very mild with a very different mechanism. You can stay awake on Lunesta very easily and be fully functional without behavioral change or memory loss. This isn’t Lunesta.
But would she take something she hadn’t any experience with on a public flight? Seems dicey. That outfit is truly wacky in any case…apparently she wore it onto the plane as well, according to reports.
One of the reasons I quit taking Lunesta and became an Ambien girl was because it was inconsistent for me. Sometimes it would kick in within 30 minutes, sometimes an hour, sometimes not at all. So I think it’s plausible that she did have previous experience with taking it, but just happened to have a different reaction to it this time.
That said, I’m personally afraid to take ANY sleep aid on a flight. I’ve done some wacky things on Ambien that are harmless at home, but would probably get me arrested upon landing if I’d done them on a plane.
I take a Tylenol PM with a glass of wine, which is typically good for four hours of sleep. I’ve never done anything questionable in that state, and in fact can still be quite easily awakened. Still maybe get a good REM cycle out of it.
Now mind you this is when I regularly took 10-12 hour flights and needed some escape from the tedium.
Sleeping pills are no joke and everyone reacts to them differently. A lot of people black out but don’t actually sleep. A friend of mine has discovered in the morning that he’s done things like cleaned his kitchen and gone binge-shopping on Amazon but has no memory of it.
I take Ambien. Maybe I will wake up some morning and find that I’ve cleaned my kitchen!
I took Lunesta for a few months when going through a very bad period of anxiety and panic attacks and I could not fall asleep. I would never take it again. My husband said that I did and said very strange things after taking it that I have no recollection of and that he tried to speak to me and I wouldn’t respond.
this totally makes sense. I used to work rotating shifts and relied on Lunesta to sleep during the day for one week per month. It hits so fast that I literally had to be IN BED before I swallowed the pill. I tried it a few times on overnight flights and it worked great, but a whole one was too much.
The Belgian football squad was stopped by ICE on the tarmac was reported on our local news, so maybe it is possible
Tarmac Security Checks
On March 30, 2026, following a 5–2 victory over the USA in Atlanta, members of the Belgian squad were subjected to security checks directly on the airport tarmac.
Reaction: The team was reportedly “stunned” by the procedure, which has been described as a “taste of what is to come” for the upcoming 2026 World Cup.
I don’t think an addict in recovery would take the kind of sleeping pill that can alter their mental status, unfortunately.