What Cybill Shepherd's Daughter Clementine Has Said About Her Health Issues

Clementine Ford-Wilcox is a star in her own right. The daughter of "Moonlighting" actor Cybill Shepherd and her first husband, nightclub manager David Ford, is recognized for her varied work on TV, including her portrayal of Molly Kroll on "The L Word." In 2009, she picked up momentum in her acting career, playing Mackenzie Browning on the daytime soap opera "The Young and the Restless." The long days on set were draining; her false lashes irritated her eyes, and her shoes caused soreness in her feet. It was when the pain would linger off-set that she knew something was wrong. As she recalled to Soap Opera Digest in 2020, "The eye pain was in April, and the following November was when I lost feeling in my feet. The next doctor said, 'It sounds like classic MS [multiple sclerosis].' I got my MRI and he was like, 'Yep. You have MS.'"

In 2018, Ford-Wilcox confirmed on social media that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that causes damage to the myelin layer around the nerves, according to The Mayo Clinic. In her social media post, the actor opened up about her fear of being fired if she was open about her chronic disease. "Finally, I hit the limit of what I could hold. I reached out, I discussed, I wrote," she said, adding, "but then someone, someone actually famous, not just adjacent, went public with her MS and any interest in me petered" (via Celeb Dirty Laundry). Ford-Wilcox didn't name the famous person whom she was discussing, but several celebrities have opened up about their struggles with MS. Christina Applegate has been candid about her health issues and Selma Blair has gotten real about living with the condition. Ford-Wilcox ultimately decided to go public with her diagnosis despite her initial hesitation.

While the diagnosis was new for Clementine Ford-Wilcox, the pain was not. "It started when I was 19 or 20. I would lose sight in one of my eyes when I was jogging outside when it was hot," she told Bustle in 2019. But after confronting and identifying her issues, Ford-Wilcox began putting her health at the forefront of her life. "There's a lot of things I just don't do," she told the outlet. "I can't go to an all-day afternoon birthday party in the sun and then go to dinner. I have to choose." She was picky about what roles she signed on to do, but as a busy mom of two, it was ultimately how she took care of herself.

Fortunately, Ford-Wilcox also had her mom by her side. There are plenty of tragic details about Cybill Shepherd's kids, but finding out about her daughter's multiple sclerosis diagnosis was one memory that would forever sting for Shepherd. "That diagnosis of my daughter Clementine was one of the most difficult days of my life," the "Cybill" star revealed on stage at the 2022 Annual Race to Erase MS Gala (via Variety). However, Shepherd noted that her daughter was thriving as a mom.