WandaVision and Buffy actress Emma Caulfield Ford has MS

Actress Emma Caulfield Ford, best known for playing Anya Jenkins on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sarah Proctor/Dottie Jones on WandaVision, has revealed she has been diagnosed with MS, or multiple sclerosis.

In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Emma Caulfield Ford opened up about MS, defined as a “potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord” that does tend to affect females more than males. Ford, who is 49, recalled first noticing symptoms such as lack of most feeling on her skin more than a decade earlier. (Considering early onset appears between 20-40, this lines up.) Hearing it could be Bell’s palsy, she sought medical attention. Upon receiving her MS diagnosis, she said it was “an out-of-body experience.”

Still, Ford has kept quite optimistic considering the compilcations. “It’s a weird thing to say when you’re given a diagnosis like that, but truthfully, my attitude is not crumbling under the fear of “what if” or “what can,” or “what has” for other people. I just have to keep going.”

Initially, Emma Caulfield Ford was hesitant to reveal her diagnosis, saying, “I knew in my bones that if you talk about this, you’re just going to stop working.” However, she decided to come out partly so she didn’t have to hide it from her young daughter.

She has also kept fairly busy since the diagnosis, with appearances on Once Upon a Time, Supergirl and Fear the Walking Dead. But Emma Caulfield Ford is most recognizable to TV fans as Sarah aka Queen Cul-de-Sac aka Dottie on Disney+’s WandaVision and ex-vengeance demon Anya on cult favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She will reprise the former on Agatha: Coven of Chaos. Unfortunately, the Buffy reboot is “on pause.”

How do you feel about Emma Caulfield Ford coming out about her MS diagnosis?