For more than two years, Kimberly Williams-Paisley suffered from a strange ailment that took doctors months to figure out. Kimberly suddenly lost her voice while on stage with her sister, Ashley Williams, at a charity event in 2022. She thought she just needed to drink hot tea and rest her voice, but what she learned in the following months was much more serious. Kimberly shared with People she visited the Vanderbilt Voice Center, where her journey to wellness began. After discovering she had tension dysphonia in early 2023, “the muscles in my neck were tensing up to help my vocal cords hit each other,” she spent the next several months retraining her body.
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Kimberly Williams-Paisley Feared She’d Never Speak Above A Whisper Again
She went to physical therapy, tried a special vegan diet, and even visited an astrologer in hopes of finding help. Her husband, Brad Paisley, did his best to support her.
“I’d give her advice: ‘Do this vocal warm-up with me,'” he told People. “I stepped in it so much!”
But Kimberly said he kept things light. “He’s so good at keeping me laughing. That’s a gift.”
After months of therapy and working on her neck muscles, Kimberly Williams-Paisley went back to Vanderbilt, and they told her that her left vocal cord wasn’t meeting the right.
“Once I got that diagnosis, my body could relax in a whole new
way,” she said. “The shame and blame dissipated. It was largely a technical issue, not something I did wrong.”
Kimberly Williams-Paisley underwent a three-hour surgery in August that changed everything. The moment she woke up, her voice was back. “I couldn’t believe it was true.”
She told People it may never be the same, but she is much better and so grateful to Brad and their sons, Huck and Jasper, for sticking by her side through it all.
This story’s featured image is by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images.
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