Former soap opera star Michelle Stafford surpassed expectations with her outstanding performance as Phyllis in the hit TV series “The Young & The Restless.”

The Young & The Restless, the top-rated soap drama with 20 million daily viewers across 20 countries, starred actress Michelle Stafford.

The 1990 film “Tribes” gave the former model her first acting role; she later appeared in “Pacific Palisades” (1997) and “Like Mother, Like Daughter” (2007).

When a modeling chance came along, Stafford had the option to travel to other nations including Italy, Japan, and France. This was the beginning of Stafford’s Hollywood career.

The Chicago native experienced a burning yearning for acting, her first love, after spending a year abroad in Italy. Without more delay, Stafford returned to the US, where she immediately started the auditioning process.

A number of advertisements and TV show cameos followed her acting roles on “Tribes.” Charles Durning, a Tony Award-winning actor, directed two plays in which she appeared.

The classic Phyllis Summers role on “The Young & the Restless” gave Stafford her big break. The character was initially meant to be a one-month experiment, but after Stafford made quite an impression, the filmmakers decided to keep her.

She won two consecutive Soap Opera Digest Awards and an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in her first two years of playing Phyllis.

In addition to the daytime program, the scriptwriter appeared as a guest star in 1995’s “JAG,” 1997’s “Players,” and 1998’s “Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place.”

In September 2013, Stafford spoke candidly about her choice to retire from the role of Phyllis, adding that it was time to move on.

“Time has come. But I wonder how much fun one person can actually have. It was such a fun ride, and I was on for 15 years.”

Stafford had to split ways with her most enduring character while also going through some personal struggles. When she made the decision to follow the essential steps for her to become pregnant, everything initially fell short since she yearned to be a mother so much.

In an interview with Lifestyle Magazine in October 2020, Stafford disclosed that she initially tried adoption, but it did not turn out as she had hoped. As a last resort, she tried IVF, which also failed.

The producer, who is unmarried, reportedly tried in-vitro fertilization and artificial insemination after opting to start a family on her own. Stafford eventually got what she wanted after four operations and three egg retrievals when she decided to go the surrogacy route.

The 56-year-old confessed that while she never wavered in her desire to become a mother, she did shiver at some aspects of the demanding process:

“I had always wanted to have children. I did, however, fudge certain portions of the procedure. It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do.”

After three years of what Stafford called her “road through hell,” everything else fell into place, and she was ecstatic and eventually fortunate to reveal that she was having her first child through surrogacy.

The children, who are her biological children, were welcomed into the world through two different surrogates. But Stafford claimed that none of that mattered because all she wanted was to become a mother.

On December 21, 2009, the “Earthfall” actor gave birth to daughter Natalia, now 12 years old, a rep revealed to People. Jameson, who is now 6 years old, was then born in 2015.

Stafford is a devoted mother who frequently enjoys posting adorable moments with her family on social media. The children resemble their mother in appearance.

The delighted mother shared a photo of herself and her children wearing blue and white No. 9 football jerseys with “Stafford” written on the back in February. Standing in the entrance doorway, they smiled for the camera while facing away from the lens. “The Attraction” actor captioned the picture:

You all knew this was going to happen, right? #STAFFORD #SUPERBOWL #LARAMS

Stafford also tweeted a beautiful family photo of her and her children enjoying the beach in April 2021. She wrote, “Water Family. Earth Family. #earthday #TBT.”

The mother of two had tweeted a video of her kids dancing and lip-syncing to Maroon 5’s “Sugar” song a month earlier. She captioned the picture, “And there it is…@realstafford on @tiktok.”

Stafford, a single mother, has spoken about the difficulties of homeschooling her children. In her Instagram account, she refers to herself as a “glorified UBER driver” for her kids.

The red-haired beauty openly discussed her difficulties on her blog website MichelleStafford.com, admitting that raising children by herself is challenging. All she could recall from her first year as a mother was getting mocked for lugging a car seat around.

Stafford remarked that having a partner do that instead of her would have been wonderful. Additionally, she would spend a lot of time working on her online series, “The Stafford Project,” before returning home to her daughter.

She spent the majority of the night awake, only to wake up at five in the morning to repeat the process. Stafford admitted that it was happiness and still is, and he added that the same is true of the difficulties.

She’d yearned to be a mother for far too long, and she’d even heard some say it wouldn’t ever happen. Therefore, the actress claimed that whatever challenges she had as a single parent could never match the terrifying process involved in giving birth to her children.

Furthermore, despite all the challenges she had on the road to motherhood, Stafford loves being a single mom more than anything else:

“I have nothing but admiration for anyone raising a child by themselves. You should be commended for being such extraordinary people.”

Despite how much Stafford enjoys being a mother, she sometimes wishes she had a companion with whom to share challenges. Even on her social media, she had been outspoken about it.

I am DONE with cleaning up their poops!! Stafford said in response to actor Christian LeBlanc’s post in December 2011. “I require a husband because of THIS. He’d act in that way, “Added she.

Later, in June 2012, Stafford once more expressed her annoyance on Twitter, writing: “I’m done now! I’m getting married. For a while, I need someone to be in charge.”

Stafford has been dating while looking for a marriage, and she had a lot to say about one particular man. She revealed: She once again shared her experience on Twitter.

“Therefore, if the man you’re dating waxes lyrical about his insane ex… Why did you date a maniac, you had to question him. #run4thehills.”

Stafford remembered a romantic weekend gone bad with a partner in January 2014. At a spa in Palm Springs, she and her beau contracted food illness, and they stayed in bed all weekend.

Even though I was ill, I had to get up and drive him to the hospital because he was such a baby and thought he needed to go, said Stafford. He continued claiming to be afraid, but the doctor assured him he was alright, she said, adding that the entire escapade was horrifying.

Stafford started “The Stafford Project” in an effort to find love. She found that a lot of ladies were interested in the topic and had their own personal narratives.

The ladies, like her, were single mothers in their 30s and 40s looking for love and encountering the same difficulties. Some people desired to find love and have children even though they weren’t parents and were single.

More than anything else, the ladies wanted to know they weren’t alone, Stafford underscored, noting that many of them had been married, divorced, or had children of their own. Others hadn’t been married, but they were still looking for someone.