What happened with Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis? Moonlighting star opens up about squashing beef with co-stars

Forty-four years after Moonlight went off air, Cybill Shepherd has now 'mended her fences' with co-actors: Bruce Willis and Christine Baranski. In a sit-down with People Magazine, Shepherd touched upon her relationship with her co-stars and informed the magazine 'how relieved she was' that her feuds were quashed.

When asked about her relationship with Bruce and his current dementia diagnosis, she said:

“Yes, I’m very grateful for that. Yeah, it was time.”

The duo were seen together in the hit comedy series Moonlight that aired between 1985 and 1989, where their on-screen tension drew in the viewers. However, it was this 'tension' that had seeped into their lives off-screen as well.

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What Happened Between Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis?

At the height of the show's popularity, rumors of their offscreen tension were rife in the media. The situation further worsened when Cybill Shepherd reportedly 'namecalled' Bruce in the tabloids.

Tracing back to his 1990 appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show, Willis, when asked about his equation with Shepherd, confessed that the two never 'spend any time together outside the show'. When prodded by Hall on whether Cybill is going to make her entry to the Die Hard franchise, Willis was quick to shoot the idea down, saying:

“I don’t think so. Not right now, anyway. Listen, Moonlighting was a very good show for me, and I had a lot of fun doing it. It reached a point where it was no longer fun.”

He further added:

“It also reached a point where we kind of ran out of things for these people to do.”

Bringing their relationship back to the center again, Willis revealed that the two 'didn't get along well':

“Fourteen-hour days, five days a week, and I was working 12 months a year… I have no hard feelings. I’m doing other things now.”

Shepherd eventually addressed their feud in 2000, when she alleged that the s*xual chemistry of their onscreen characters also carried over off the screen. However, when she reportedly approached Willis to give their off-screen romance a chance, she was shot down.

In an interview with The Scottish Daily Record in 2000, she revealed:

“We never did finish what we started...”

Before adding that she was 'thankful' when the romance didn't materialize:

“But once I got to know him I was glad I didn’t get involved. Bruce Willis is a jerk.”

However, in a 2022 interview with Extra, Cybill Shepherd spoke fondly of her costar:

“No one else was ever considered for the part when he walked in the room.”

Talking about their chemistry, she added:

“My temperature went up 10 degrees. That meant two things to me: one, I was very attracted to him, two, I would never act on it, 'cause we were both very attracted to each other.”

Talking about her current equation with Christine Baranski, she said:

“We’re good now. Just a talk and be real open-hearted with each other.”

Cybill Shepherd was last seen in the 2023 TV movie, How to Murder Your Husband.