Kimberly Williams-Paisleywas afraid she might never speak above a whisper again.
“So much of our personalities are expressed in our voice and for me, so much of my career,” she says. “And when that’s not there, I thought, ‘Who am I?’ I felt invisible,” says Williams-Paisley, who is opening up about her ordeal for the first time in this week’s PEOPLE cover story. “I’m someone who tries to find the silver lining no matter what, but there are days when I really grieved.”
In January 2023, Williams-Paisley visited theVanderbilt Voice Center, where doctors have treated some of the biggest names in Nashville, fromJohnny CashtoWynonna Judd. They put a scope through her nose and down her throat to examine her vocal cords, but the muscles in her neck were so tight that the cords were barely visible. She was diagnosed with muscle tension dysphonia.
“When we first saw her, it was hard to tell what was happening to the vocal cords themselves,” says Dr. Gaelyn Garrett, executive medical director of the Voice Center.
Because doctors could not actually see the vocal cords to identify the problem, they had to address the voice strain due to the muscle tension first. “It’s almost like you put a purse string around the tissue that sits right up above the vocal cords, and it’s squeezing,” Dr. Garrett says of the way the muscles were constraining her voice.
Kimberly Williams-Paisley shares her story in this week’s issue of PEOPLE.Brian Doben
Brian Doben
The actress started physical therapy to reduce tension, including “a specific type of physical therapy approach using hands-on treatments, something akin to myofascial release,” Garrett says. “You’re working at pressure points and giving exercises to do at home to alter the muscle memory.”
The actress also began a personal “deep dive” looking for anything that could help her alleviate stress, including going to a mental health therapist, seeking out a psychic and astrologer, trying hypnosis, cutting out food that could cause inflammation like gluten, sugar and dairy, and beginning a daily meditation practice (which she continues to this day).
“You hope the therapy fixes the problem but sometimes you’ll uncover an underlying problem that was not initially apparent, which is exactly what happened with Kimberly,” Dr. Garrett says.
Kimberly Williams-Paisley photographed for PEOPLE at home outside Nashville in November.Brian Doben
Her muscles had been tensing up to compensate for her vocal cord. “She had to exert a lot of force to try and bring her vocal cords together because of the weak left vocal cord,” says Vanderbilt speech pathologist Jennifer Muckala, who worked with Williams Paisley. “She was essentially a leaking valve.”
To determine if surgery would help her, Garrett says, her medical team injected a filler (hyaluronic acid —“the same filler that people use cosmetically”) into her left cord to see if bulking it up would help her speak. “It was a trial to see if we got the vocal cords to close better and vibrate more symmetrically, would that provide her the benefit she needed to improve her voice quality,” Garrett says,
The filler worked, so Garrett decided Williams-Paisley was a candidate for medialization laryngoplasty, a procedure in which the weak left vocal cord is moved closer to the right. The actress underwent the three-hour surgery in August — and all the while she remained awake.
Kimberly Williams-Paisley in the hospital with husband Brad in August, and her surgery scar.Courtesy Kimberly Williams-Paisley
Courtesy Kimberly Williams-Paisley
“We wanted to tune the cord the best we could,” says Garrett, who along with a team at Vanderbilt performed the surgery. She says she averages one of the procedures per week. “We had her awake so we could hear how the voice changes as we manipulated the position of the vocal cord. We’re trying to get the natural voice back.”
Being awake as they opened up her throat was “bizarre” Williams-Paisley says. “They put up aplastic sheet so I couldn’t see anything except my throat on a screen they set up. It looked like another mouth, like a big hole!"
But, she says, going in with her eyes open was “beautifully symbolic. I feel like I’ve been waking up to myself. I had to be fully present to cross this finish line, and I was really ready for it."
Kimberly Williams-Paisley and her ‘support’ swan used for therapy.Courtesy of Kimberly Williams-Paisley
Courtesy of Kimberly Williams-Paisley
“After surgery, her vocal folds can now touch and she can exert force with her breath without it closing off, but there is a challenge in hearing yourself well,” says Muckala. “Kim is a really dynamic and really emotive person and the voice limitation got in the way of that.”
Her swan exercises let her know that her voice will be there. “It’s a way of anchoring her to her competence,” Muckala says.
Kimberly Williams-Paisley photographed for PEOPLE in November 2024.Brian Doben
Today, Williams-Paisley says her voice is ready to project again — and she’s even taken on her first professional job post-surgery, hosting Fox’s next season ofFarmer Wants a Wife, premiering March 20. And even though her voice has changed, “I love and appreciate it no matter what form it takes. I know my voice is doing the best it can.”
source: people.com