Talk-Show Host Forced to Step Away from Show as Disease Takes Toll on Body
She sat alone on the stage and addressed her audience directly. They weren’t sure what she was going to say but knew it was going to be important.
The host of the Emmy-nominated, syndicated, daytime talk show “The Wendy Williams Show” was somber, but kept her humor as she shared what was going on with her to her concerned fans.
She’d collapsed during a show segment months prior and according to People magazine, it was “a collapse she told audiences occurred because she had ‘overheated’ in her Statue of Liberty costume.”
She dove into her personal health journey, starting with the fact that she sees an endocrinologist (and all her doctors), twice a year because she’s “paranoid.”
She credited fans with catching a bulging eye issue before she did and said her thyroid had been “totally cattywampus.”
Being 53 years old and going through menopause, being stressed, and busy with family life, it was easy to brush off the signs that something was medically wrong.
But then she got into the nitty-gritty of what she was dealing with, “my hyperthyroid is attached also to Graves’ disease. Graves’ disease squeezes the muscles behind your eyeballs, so that is the reason for [my eye problems] along with weight loss.”
Williams lost “50 for 50” and explained that Graves disease “promotes nervousness…anxiety.” She denied dealing with those but did “cop to irritability,” having “trouble sleeping,” “difficulty swallowing,” “rapid heartbeat,” and “intolerance for heat.”
She also explained how she feels as if she has “birds swimming around” her head “like a cartoon” and is in a state of being “constantly high, but not high.”
This lead her into sharing some advice for other women regarding how they commonly put everyone and everything else ahead of themselves.
“Stop putting everyone first, because if we’re not good, they’re not good.” She also advised women to stay on top of their own medical health, being sure to get regular pap smears and mammograms.
Then she announced that she was told to take “three weeks of vacation” by her doctor, which she was not happy about and promised to be back sooner than that.
Williams is not the first celebrity who has had to make changes in their professional life due to disease.
Legendary singer Neil Diamond had to stop touring due to Parkinson’s disease, and iconic performer Cher stopped concert tours for several years due to a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome diagnosis.
Williams explained, “I’m not an heiress. Who’s gonna pay my bills? Are you serious?” She added, “I’m just saying. I come from working class.”
The touching, earthy segment was not just broadcast during her show, but it was also shared on social media. She labeled it simply as “A message from Wendy.”
Our thoughts and prayers are with the talk show host as she makes a hopefully speedy recovery back to health.
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