Natasha Lyonne was reportedly escorted off a Delta flight after not complying with flight attendants’ requests to switch off her laptop and fasten her seatbelt.
According to Page Six, the 47-year-old actress seemed disoriented as she was set to leave Los Angeles on Tuesday, just hours after attending the Euphoria season three premiere in Hollywood.
This incident follows three months after Lyonne publicly shared her struggle with a relapse following nearly a decade of sobriety.
Seated in first class, Lyonne was still dressed in attire from the premiere when the situation unfolded.
Eyewitnesses noted that Lyonne received repeated instructions from flight crew members, and she appeared to be drifting in and out of sleep during the ordeal.
At one point, she reportedly reacted with surprise, telling the flight attendants, “Ah! You scared me!”
Natasha Lyonne was reportedly escorted off a flight after failing to respond to flight attendants asking her to turn off her laptop and fasten her seatbelt – pictured at the Euphoria season 3 premiere on April 7
Lyonne was reportedly sitting first class when she was kicked off a Delta flight; stock photo of Delta flight in 2014
The staff were eventually able to retrieve her laptop and the plane taxied onto the runway before it returned to the gate, where a Delta staffer boarded to speak to Lyonne.
‘Ma’am, do you need medical attention?’ the staffer reportedly asked Lyonne. ‘Ma’am, I need you to come off the plane. Do you need help with your belongings?’
‘Where are we?’ she was heard asking.
‘We’re still in LA. The plane hasn’t gone anywhere,’ they said. ‘The plane is not going anywhere until you come off it.’
According to Page Six, Lyonne ‘coolly shushed’ the staffer before heading towards the bathroom and coming out snacking on a bag of pretzels.
She departed the plane in an obedient fashion following the removal of her luggage.
The captain later revealed they had dealt with a passenger unable to follow ‘basic commands’ as they addressed the more than hour-long delay with travelers.
‘We have a passenger who for whatever reason … wouldn’t follow some basic commands … We had a passenger who didn’t seem up to the task tonight so that’s why they were asked to be booked on another flight — I do apologize for the inconvenience, but we will get you to New York as quickly and as safely as possible,’ the captain reportedly said.
Earlier in the evening, Lyonne had shocked fans when she walked the red carpet flashing her braless bust in a mesh top, as she plugged her role in Euphoria – pictured with Brian Grazer
The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Lyonne for comment but did not immediately hear back. Delta declined to comment.
According to TMZ, Lyonne was scheduled to appear on The Drew Barrymore Show the following day but failed to make it.
Earlier in the evening, Lyonne had shocked fans when she walked the red carpet flashing her braless bust in a mesh top, as she plugged her role in Euphoria.
The incident comes three months after she revealed she suffered a relapse.
‘Took my relapse public, more to come,’ Lyonne told her 545.5k followers, who showered her with support.
‘Thanks, boss … for the grace, etc.,’ the actress wrote in response to one bolstering comment. ‘Sending love back your way. May become a pothead or a nun. TBD.’
The incident comes three months after Lyonne revealed she had suffered a relapse after being sober for nearly 10 years – pictured April 7
An eyewitness observed Lyonne being given instructions by multiple flight attendants, and the actress was reportedly dozing off during the mishap. She was heard telling flight attendants at one point: ‘Ah! You scared me!’ – Pictured January 4 in LA
Lyonne didn’t give an exact time frame of when the relapse occurred or how, but she stressed that ‘recovery is a lifelong process.’
‘Anyone out there struggling, remember you’re not alone,’ her written message continued on Saturday, January 24.
‘Grateful for love and smart feet. Gonna do it for baby Bambo. Stay honest, folks. Sick as our secrets.’
The Orange is the New Black alum added: ‘If no one told ya today, I love you. No matter how far down the scales we have gone, we will see how our experience may help another. Keep going, kiddos. Don’t quit before the miracle. Wallpaper your mind with love. Rest is all noise and baloney.’
To one devotee she wrote, ‘Love ya back,’ and to another, she confided, ‘We need better systems and to end shame — bill the Sacklers and stilettos or something but don’t @ me for getting honest.’
She was referring to the notorious Sackler family, known for owning Purdue Pharma, which developed the highly addictive pain medication OxyContin and amassed billions from its sales.
Last year, the company was forced to cough up a $7.4 billion settlement for their role in the current opioid epidemic.
In March, she offered an update on her sobriety journey: ‘Proud to report this kid is doing a whole lot better & back on her feet,’ she posted to X.
Lyonne, who completed rehab in 2006, previously spoke about her downward spiral into drug and alcohol addiction in a candid interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2012.
‘Spiraling into addiction is really, really scary,’ she said. ‘Some things have a very A-to-B scientific effect. Like, alcohol is a depressant. Cocaine is a stimulant. And then: Cocaine plus heroin is bad! That’s the point of my story, that’s the moral. Coke plus heroin equals speedball. And speedball equals bad, you know?
‘It’s weird to talk about,’ she said at the time. ‘I was definitely as good as dead, you know? A lot of people don’t come back. That makes me feel wary, and self-conscious. I wouldn’t want to feel prideful about it. People really rallied around me and pulled me up by my f—ing bootstraps.’
The New York City native took to social media in January saying she felt better after her relapse
Lyonne was making headlines in the early to mid-2000s but not the nice kind: a drunk-driving arrest, a run-in with a neighbor resulting in a court appearance, hospitalization for hepatitis C, a collapsed lung and infective endocarditis and later open-heart surgery to correct damage done.
In 2006 at age 27, she checked into an in-patient rehab for treatment for her drug and alcohol abuse.
‘Eventually, I made it through those dark nights of the soul,’ Lyonne told The Times in 2024.
Lyonne has seen a career resurgence in her 40s, and recently she has shifted her focus away from starring roles to directing, writing and producing, such as the 1980s-set boxing film Bambo.
