Country Star’s Wife Opens Up About Insane Throat Surgery After Being Unable To Speak For Two Years

Country singer Brad Paisley’s wife, actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley, opened up about the insane throat surgery she underwent in August after being unable to speak for nearly two years.

Speaking to People magazine, Kimberly talked about visiting Nashville’s Vanderbilt Voice Center in January 2023 where she was diagnosed with muscle tension dysphonia. It came after she suddenly lost the ability to speak in November 2022, being unable to make more noise with her voice than a whisper.

Doctors at the time said her vocal cords were so tight they were barely visible and later discovered that her two vocal cords weren’t touching anymore, a condition known as partial paralysis.

“So much of our personalities are expressed in our voice and for me, so much of my career. And when that’s not there, I thought, ‘Who am I?’ I felt invisible,” Williams-Paisley said. “I’m someone who tries to find the silver lining no matter what, but there are days when I really grieved.”

The “Father of the Bride” star said after “looking in every corner and trying everything” to get her voice back, she decided nearly two years later to undergo a procedure called medialization laryngoplasty. It requires surgery to move the weak left vocal cord closer to the right one, the outlet noted.

Kimberly Williams-Paisley is opening up about a “terrifying” medical ordeal in which her voice inexplicably disappeared: “There were days when I grieved and sobbed.”https://t.co/FAyUAlXnil

— Good Morning America (@GMA) December 18, 2024

“We wanted to tune the cord the best we could,” Dr. Gaelyn Garrett said. “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.”

The surgery required Williams-Paisley to stay awake the entire three-hours, something the actress called “bizarre.”

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“They put up a plastic sheet so I couldn’t see anything except my throat on a screen they set up,” Kimberly said. “It looked like another mouth, like a big hole!”

She said going into the procedure 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.”

The outlet then detailed how the medical procedure went. For the procedure, “the team took an implant made of silicone rubber and put it next to her left vocal cord to hold it in place, then asked her to speak. They removed it, adjusted the size by hand-carving it, replaced it and had her try again. When her voice was back to its natural tone, they knew it fit perfectly.” The implant is permanent and should last a lifetime.

“I couldn’t believe it was true,” Kimberly said. “It felt great.”

After two years of being unable to hear her own voice, the surgery had allowed her to once again speak out loud.

While the surgery left her a significant scar on her throat, she joked, “Fortunately for me, I have wrinkles!” But she said she’s “not self-conscious about it. I’m proud. It’s part of my story.”

Related: Brad Paisley And Wife Kimberly Williams Open Free Toy Store For Kids Ahead Of Holidays