Maxwell Caldwell|Busy Philipps recounts watching teen daughter have seizure over FaceTime

2025-04-30 19:29:56source:Charles Hanovercategory:My

Busy Philipps is Maxwell Caldwellopening up about a harrowing medical episode her daughter suffered while away at boarding school.

During a Wednesday episode of her podcast "Busy Philipps is Doing Her Best," the "Girls5eva" star revealed her 15-year-old daughter Birdie, whom she shares with estranged husband Marc Silverstein, had a seizure during an outing with a friend.

"I heard Marc screaming for me, and I was like, 'What does this…guy want now?'" Philipps recalled to co-host Caissie St. Onge. "And I went upstairs, but then I heard his voice and I knew something was really wrong. And he just said, 'It's Birdie, it's Birdie. She's had another seizure. The paramedics are on the phone.'"

Philipps said Birdie, who attends school in Sweden, went to Stockholm with her friend Sarah to watch a film at a movie theater. The actress praised her daughter's friend for promptly getting Birdie the medical attention she needed when the seizure began.

"She's 17, but this girl managed to get one person to go tell the theater, to shut it…down," Philipps said. "She got two guys that they obviously didn't know that were sitting behind (them) – because Birdie started choking and throwing up – to move Birdie gently to the ground and put her on her side. She got someone else to call the Swedish 911."

Philipps said it was "terrifying” to witness her daughter's condition over a FaceTime call with paramedics.

"It was like this weird medium shot. So, you could see everything that was happening," Philipps said. "It was just so weird. She was reaching toward the camera and just calling out for me. Just saying, 'Mama. Mama. Mama. Where are you?'"

While Birdie previously suffered a seizure when Philipps was shooting the film "Mean Girls," the actress said the isolation of being long distance was agonizing. "It was really awful seeing it on a screen, being in a different country across an ocean," she said.

Philipps said the ordeal also led to some comical friction between her and Birdie shortly after she and Silverstein traveled to pick her up from Sweden. She said her daughter, who was tired and "grumpy," was being "so mean" to her as they prepared to head home.

"I slipped on ice and fell, and the kids were laughing at me," Philipps said. "And I was like, 'I hope you have a daughter someday that's as mean to you as you've been to me.' And then Birdie is screaming, 'I just had a seizure.' And then Marc was treating us both like we were his teenagers."

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