Anna Paquin, 41, walks red carpet with a cane alongside husband Stephen Moyer after ‘difficult’ undisclosed health issue left Oscar-winning actress suffering mobility and speech difficulties

Anna Paquin was seen using a cane to help her get around at the New York City premiere of her new film A Bit Of Light, following a two-year health battle with an undisclosed illness.

The 41-year-old actress, who was joined by her husband and former True Blood costar Stephen Moyer, made her public return after years out of the spotlight.

It has been nearly a year and a half since her last red carpet appearance in October 2022, and the rarely spotted star was last pictured in public back in 2019.

During the event at the Crosby Street Hotel, Anna admitted the last two years had been ‘difficult’ for her, while alluding to recent health struggles that had impacted her mobility and left her suffering from some speech difficulties, according to People.

‘It hasn’t been easy,’ she said. This appears to be the first time Paquin has publicly revealed that she has been battling health issues.

Anna Paquin, 41, was seen using a cane to help her get around at the New York City premiere of her new film A Bit Of Light on Wednesday, where she was joined by husband Stephen Moyer

In A Bit Of Light, Anna plays a recovering alcoholic who reunites with her estranged father (played by Ray Winstone) after she loses custody of her daughters, who go to live with her ex-husband and his current partner; still from A Bit Of Light trailer

Paquin is the second-youngest Academy Award winner in history. She won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Jane Campion’s film The Piano in 1994, when she was just 11

However, a source was optimistic that Anna could recover fully from the undisclosed condition. 

Despite her health issues, which she only alluded to briefly, Anna looked sensational in an angular black sequined dress that matched her 54-year-old husband’s all-black look.

The lovebirds put on a unified front at the premiere for the new film, which she stars in and Stephen directed.

She plays a recovering alcoholic who reunites with her estranged father (played by Ray Winstone) after she loses custody of her daughters, who go to live with her ex-husband and his current partner.

The film and television star — who became the second-youngest person to win an Academy Award in 1994 after nabbing the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Jane Campion’s classic The Piano at age 11 — sounded excited to be back in front of the camera and working on a small independent production.

‘My first love was independent filmmaking,’ she shared. ‘That’s how I entered the film industry. I was working with people who were all about telling stories and telling them with integrity and truth.’

Anna added that she was grateful for her husband Stephen’s help, both on and off set.

‘He’s my favorite person to play with,’ she said, before making it clear that she was drawn to his artistic talents when it came to signing up for the film.

‘I’m not sentimental when it comes to work,’ she added, laughing. 

Anna explained that, while her lead character’s struggles with addiction in A Bit Of Light were foreign to her, her experience being the mother of 11-year-old fraternal twins Charlie and Poppy with Moyer helped her to tap into the emotional struggles of a mother separated from her children.

She also shares two stepchildren with Moyer — a son from his first marriage and a daughter from a previous relationship.

‘Not everyone ends up having the journey with motherhood that they have hoped or had planned,’ Anna said. ‘We’re all flawed and imperfect, and Ella is kind of on some level repeating some sort of familial patterns as far as stuffing feelings down.’

She was able to simulate her character’s pain, as it was ‘very relatable because there’s so many ways that people can get in their own way, or sort of learn to cope with trauma.’

Anna and Stephen were brought together by their hit supernatural series, True Blood.

‘It hasn’t been easy,’ the actress, who has reportedly also had speech difficulties recently, told the publication. However, a source was optimistic that Anna could recover fully from the undisclosed condition

She said she was excited to work with her husband as director because she started her career on similar independent films. She added that her experience as a mother helped her to sympathize with her character’s loss of custody

She wore a black sequined dress with large shoulder pads while carrying a matching cane. Stephen was also in all black with a tasteful suit and a tie-free black shirt

The HBO horror-romance, which ran for seven seasons from 2008 to 2014, was adapted from Charlaine Harris’ popular Southern Vampire Mysteries, with Paquin starring as Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress in rural Louisiana who strikes up a relationship with a vampire (Moyer) in an alternate present in which supernatural beings walk among us.

Paquin and Moyer met while working on the steamy series — which was infamous for its copious sex scenes — and the on-screen lovers soon struck up an off-camera romance.

Moyer, an English actor hailing from Brentwood, Essex, revealed on Watch What Happens Life that he and his future wife first met while doing a screen test ahead of the filming on True Blood.  

‘We were both single at the time, and there was just this kind of spark,’ he recalled. It was three months before they saw each other again, but once they were on set to begin filming, Stephen noticed that something had changed between himself and Anna.

‘I didn’t see her for three months, and she had gone from having dark hair to this beautiful blond, and I had gone from being blond to this dark vampire,’ he continued. ‘By day three or four — oh, this is going to sound so syrupy — but I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. It was within seconds, really, and it just became a thing.’

Moyer said elsewhere that he and Anna were romantically involved by the time they were shooting the pilot episodes of True Blood in 2007, even though he was still married to his first wife Lorien Haynes.

However, he has claimed that they had already separated when he began his relationship with his costar, and their divorce was finalized in 2008. 

The two got engaged in 2009 and tied the knot in 2010 at a private home in Malibu in the midst of True Blood’s run, though ironically their characters’ relationship became increasingly strained in later seasons.

Paquin also came out as bisexual in 2010. She and her husband went on to welcome fraternal twins — daughter Poppy and son Charlie — in September 2012.

Prior to True Blood, Anna was known for successfully navigating the often-difficult transition from child stardom to having a stable acting career as an adult.

After her Oscar win, she appeared in other popular films in her teens, including Fly Away Home (1996) and Almost Famous (2000), which netted her a SAG nomination.

As an adult, she has balanced appearing in popular blockbuster films (multiple X-Men movies) with appearances in critically acclaimed films, including Spike Lee’s 25th Hour, Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret, Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman and Noah Baumbach’s The Squid And The Whale, among others.

Anna looked her best at the premiere in a slim black long-sleeve dress covered in shimmering sequins.

Anna and Stephen began dating — and got married in 2010 — while playing human and vampire lovers on the hit HBO series True Blood (pictured)

Moyer said on WWHL that they had an instant connection when they met at screen tests, but when they reunited three months later on set to begin filming he new within days that ‘I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her’; still from True Blood

It featured edgy padded shoulders and a skirt that reached halfway down her thighs.

She matched the look with black stockings and black nail polish, along with short leather boots, and even her all-black cane suited the look.

The Margaret star wore her brunette hair swept back with a slight bump and tied tightly, which put the spotlight on her winning smile.

Stephen complemented her monochrome ensemble with one of his own featuring a tasteful black suit with slim peaked lapels and a tie-free black shirt.