Kimberly Williams-Paisley Was Awake During 3-Hour Surgery to Help Her Speak Again: 'It Was Bizarre' (Exclusive)

Kimberly Williams-Paisley feared she would never speak above a whisper again.

The Father of the bride The actress suddenly lost her voice in November 2022, and for over a year, despite “searching every corner and trying everything,” she still couldn’t speak loud enough to be heard at a dinner party, or on the red carpet — or from her two teenage sons with husband Brad Paisley when she tried to invite them to dinner.

“So much of our personalities are expressed in our voice, and for me, so much of my career,” she says. “And when that wasn’t 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 something better no matter what, but there are days when I’m really sad.”

In January 2023, Williams-Paisley visited the Vanderbilt Voice Center, where doctors have treated some of Nashville’s biggest names, from Johnny Cash to Wynonna Judd. They put a probe through her nose and throat to examine her vocal cords, but the muscles in her neck were so tense that the wires could barely be seen. She was diagnosed with muscle tension dysphonia.

“When we first saw her, it was difficult to tell what was happening with the vocal cords themselves,” says Dr. Gaelyn Garrett, Voice Center’s executive medical director.

Because doctors couldn’t actually see the vocal cords to identify the problem, they first had to address voice strain due to muscle tension. “It’s almost like you put a bag around the tissue that’s right above the vocal cords, and it gets squeezed,” says Dr. Garrett about the way her muscles got in the way of her voice.

Kimberly Williams-Paisley shares her story in this week’s issue of PEOPLE.

Brian Doben

Kimberly Williams-Paisley opens up about ‘terrifying’ 2 years she couldn’t speak: ‘I felt trapped in my own body’ (Exclusive)

The actress began physical therapy to reduce the tension, including “a specific type of approach to physical therapy using hands-on treatments, something similar to myofascial release,” says Garrett. “You work on pressure points and give exercises you can do at home to change muscle memory.”

The actress also embarked on a personal “deep dive” looking for anything to help relieve her stress, including seeing a mental health therapist, seeking psychics and astrologers, trying hypnosis, cutting out foods that could cause inflammation like gluten, sugar and dairy , and started a daily practice of meditation (which she continues to this day).

A year later, she still couldn’t speak above a whisper – but her hard work paid off in another way. The doctors re-examined her vocal cords and finally determined her underlying problem. Her left cord was weak and did not touch the right cord when they vibrated, a condition known as partial paralysis. In Williams-Paisley’s case, the condition may be caused by a virus.

“You hope therapy will fix the problem, but sometimes you’ll discover an underlying problem that wasn’t apparent at first, which is exactly what happened with Kimberly,” says Dr. Garrett.

Kimberly Williams-Paisley photographed for PEOPLE at home outside of Nashville in November.

Brian Doben

Her muscles tensed to compensate for her vocal cords. “She had to use a lot of force to try to bring her vocal cords together because of her weak left vocal cord,” says Vanderbilt speech therapist Jennifer Muckala, who worked with Williams Paisley. “She was basically a leaky valve.”

To determine if the surgery would help, Garrett says, her medical team injected a filler (hyaluronic acid — “the same filler people use in the cosmetic industry”) into her left umbilical cord to see if increasing the volume would help her talk. “It was a trial to see if we could close the vocal cords better and vibrate more symmetrically, if that would give her the benefit she needed to improve voice quality,” says Garrett,

The filler worked, so Garrett decided Williams-Paisley was a candidate for a medializing laryngoplasty, a procedure in which the weak left vocal cord is moved closer to the right. The actress underwent a three-hour operation in August – and remained awake the entire time.

Kimberly Williams-Paisley in the hospital with her husband Brad in August and her surgery scar.

Courtesy of Kimberly Williams-Paisley

“We wanted to tune the cord as best we could,” says Garrett, who performed the surgery with the team at Vanderbilt. He says that he does one of the procedures a week on average. “We kept her awake so we could hear the voice change as we manipulated the position of the vocal cords. We are trying to restore the natural voice.”

Being awake while they opened her throat was “bizarre,” says Williams-Paisley. “They put a plastic sheet so I couldn’t see anything but my throat on the screen they put up. It looked like another mouth, like a big hole!”

But, she says, walking in with her eyes open was “beautifully symbolic. I feel as if I have awakened within myself. I had to be fully present to cross this finish line and I was really ready for it.”

During the procedure, the team took an implant made of silicone rubber and placed it next to her left vocal cord to hold it in place, then asked her to speak. They removed it, resized it by hand carving it, replaced it and made her try again. When her voice returned to its natural tone, they knew it was a perfect fit. And once in place, the implant – which is permanent and should last a lifetime – allowed her to speak out loud again for the first time in almost two years: “I couldn’t believe it was true,” she says. “It felt great.”

Her resulting neck scar was significant (although the doctor made sure to cut out the neck wrinkle — “Luckily for me, I have wrinkles!” she jokes). For several months, she had to protect the scar from the sun by wearing scarves, but now “I’m not aware of it. I’m proud. It’s part of my story.”

Kimberly Williams-Paisley and her ‘support’ swan used for therapy.

Courtesy of Kimberly Williams-Paisley

Now that she’s on the other side of surgery, Williams-Paisley works to keep her voice healthy by meditating daily to reduce stress and doing vocal exercises. She also relies on a tool suggested by speech therapist Muckala: a hollow plastic swan into which she can speak and hear her voice sound loud and powerful as if she were singing in the shower.

“After the surgery, her vocal cords can now be touched and she can act on the breath without it closing, but there is a challenge in hearing well,” says Muckala. “Kim is a really dynamic and really emotional person, and the limitation of her voice got in the way of that.”

Her swan exercises let her know that her voice would be there. “It’s a way to anchor her in her competence,” says Muckala.

Kimberly Williams-Paisley photographed for PEOPLE in November 2024.

Brian Doben

Today, Williams-Paisley says her voice is ready for projection again — and she’s even taken her first professional post-surgery job, hosting Fox’s next season A farmer wants a wifepremiere on March 20. And even though her voice has changed, “I love and appreciate it no matter what form it’s in. I know my voice is doing the best it can.”

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Source: HIS Education