Where is Willa Ford now? Her journey from a pop icon to the designer

Willa Ford Made a dangerous career change – and ultimately successful – after riding the wave from a pop supermarket in the early 2000s.

With Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera Emerging as the acts of large music in 1999, the 18 -year -old Ford (real name Amanda Lee Williford) was initially signed for Atlantic Records under the stage name “Mandah.” Ultimately, executives used records of her real last name as an inspiration for an alternative moniker, “Willa Ford,” to avoid confusion with another emerging pop princess, Mandy Moore.

Ford Slot soon landed a stylish opening act for Backstreet Boys’ Into the Millennium “tour in 2000 before the release of his first single,” I Want Be Bad “the following year. The single who had a strong early success, but Ford had the unfortunate timing of the release of his subsequent single, “Did Ya ‘understands that,” on September 11, 2001.

During an interview in 2017 with Weather.

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“Everything that happened that day frozen; the world stood still, as it should be,” he remembered. “My second single didn’t do well because anything that launched that day gets a tin. I know that sounds silly, but on the radio they slate things, but it fell to the side of the road. I didn’t think it was a big deal because we were making a new album anyway.”

Ford remembered her string of bad luck continuing when his recording label was sold and left the executive that had promoted her company’s career.

“I felt that this pop machine had taken me and put me in the washing cycle and I had been spinning out of control,” he remembered. “I wanted some time to refocus myself. I started re-evaluating what I was doing.”

Throughout the early 2000s, Ford became a spokesman for the Propoice Pantene Pro-V campaign and filled as a host for MTV’s Drl and Say what karaokeBefore landing her own short -lived web series I bet you will do that in 2002.

At the same time, her love life created enough headlines while she dated Backstreet Boys Member Nick Carter. After the couple separated in the early 2000s, Ford admittedly to Press that the high profile relationship is difficult to navigate.

“We learned a lot together. We went through so much young,” said Ford. “We were put in front of all these people so fast and we were so ridiculous.”

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The singer added: “I think at the end of the day, he knew I caught the brunt of it. Like, I really got the bad part because I wasn’t the boys band famous at the time. I think he felt bad for him to happen.”

While her short romance with Backstreet Boys member, Carter, remains the early 2000s pop literature vulnerability, Ford’s two weddings were key to IS. She was with a hockey player Mike Modano Between 2007 and 2012, before tying the knot with retired NFL Star and Community Activist Rye In 2015. He welcomed Ford and Nece son of Elias Everett Mandel in 2016.

Ford never managed to recapture the momentum of “I wanna be bad,” so he transferred to acting without ever releasing a second album. Ford landed the title role in the direct-to-dvd movie Anna Nicole Smith’s story and starred opposite Gilmore Girls‘ Jared Pastalki restarts 2009 from Friday the 13thwho made nearly $ 100 million at the box office. She has continued to act – often in television hotel roles – up to this day.

Ford pivoted her career again in the late 2000s to work as an interior designer for list clients and as Steve Aoki and Montana Frenchwith her work being addressed The kardashiansStar Scott Disick‘s short -lived! serialize Was flipped as a disick. She said Hollywood reporter In 2019 she hoped to inspire other women with her career transition.

“I want to empower other women and let them know that it’s right a careers pivot,” explains Ford. “Even if you don’t have a college degree, you’re still worthy of transfer. I was told, ‘You were a pop singer. Why should I think of you as an interior designer?’ Well, you should take me seriously because I have worked my thickness away, and it has been seven years now that I have run my own company.

As Ford reflected on her “palace” away from music, he suggested that many do not understand “the timetable you keep and how much you need everyone slowly breaking away on you.”

“There are several reasons (why I left music left),” he insisted. “Look, you need to have success with your singles. That’s one reason for me to leave. But I had come to a point where I couldn’t do it anymore. I remember breaking down and calling my mother on the phone. And I told her, ‘I don’t feel right anymore, Mum.’ And she said, ‘You are packing your suitcase and coming home right now.’ And so did I.

Ford went on, “I left New York, went on a plane and went home to Florida. I needed to take that moment to breathe. And then I watched a lot of people getting analyzes later because they didn’t take that time. It was part of my journey, and it was the healthiest thing I could do at the time.”

Ford continues to work in interior design in Los Angeles to this day and recently Celebrating her tenth -anniversary wedding in April 2015.