Willa Ford, 45, who emerged as a prominent pop singer in the early 2000s alongside contemporaries such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, and Mandy Moore, has released her first album in over two decades following a serious personal health crisis.
Ford, also known for her friendship with Paris Hilton and for appearing in Playboy Magazine in March 2006, had stepped away from music to pursue other ventures, including interior design and acting. Notably, she portrayed Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith in a 2007 biopic and worked as Scott Disick’s interior designer on the E! series Flip It Like Disick.
In an interview with People Magazine, Ford disclosed that she began experiencing psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) in December 2023. According to the Cleveland Clinic, PNES are seizures triggered by psychological stress rather than abnormal electrical activity in the brain. During episodes, Ford was unable to drive or work, but she emphasized that the condition motivated her to reclaim her life: “The seizures are what made me decide I wasn’t done living,” she stated.
Ford traced the origin of her seizures to a past trauma from her early music career. She turned to songwriting as a therapeutic outlet, describing it as “all I could do” to cope. While the episodes continue to occur approximately once a month, therapy and anti-anxiety medication have helped manage them, and she uses a “rescue med” for particularly severe attacks.
Ford did not provide specific details about the trauma, noting that it was unrelated to her label, labelmates, or producers, but suggested that it involved an unsavory experience with “this person” when she was 25. Despite this, she has emphasized her focus on healing rather than seeking revenge.
Her new album, released more than 20 years after her 2001 debut Willa Was Here—which included the hit single I Wanna Be Bad—represents both a creative resurgence and a personal triumph over the challenges posed by PNES.#newsafro_
