Getty Wendy Williams hosts the Thurgood Marshall College Fund 28th Annual Awards Gala at Washington Hilton on November 21, 2016 in Washington, DC.
On Monday, Wendy Williams will return to host her self-titled talk show. On February 21, the 53-year-old announced that she was taking a brief leave from her hosting duties to address medical issues that resulted from her battle with Graves’ disease.
On live TV, Williams told her audience, “My doctor has prescribed — are you ready? — three weeks of vacation… I was pissed.”
Graves’ disease is an autoimmune disorder that causes hyperthyroidism, or an overactive thyroid. Many symptoms can accompany the disease, including a goiter, trouble sleeping, irritability or nervousness, heat sensitivity, hand tremors, and more.
On Monday morning, Williams will appear in a pre-taped Good Morning America interview that marks her first interview since taking her medical leave. Speaking to Amy Robach, Williams shares that she missed three doctors’ appointments with her endocrinologist. Asked by Robach if her health was at the bottom of her list, Williams admits it was.
So how is she doing now? What’s the latest on Williams’ health? “I’m functioning OK, I’m feeling a little weird but I’ll get through it. And I went in February and that’s where I found, whoa, your levels are way off,” she shares with Robach.
Compared to a few months ago, however, Wendy admits she’s certainly turned the corner. The TV personality tells People, “I feel a hundred percent better than I was a few months ago. I had a storm going in my body is the best way I can explain it…”
On Monday’s episode, Doctor Oz will stop by the studio to discuss Williams’ health.
While Williams knew there was something off for a while, she says she thought her symptoms had to do with menopause, not her thyroid. “With the menopause I wasn’t pointing a finger to any particular thing. I was just feeling like ‘All right, well I’m 53 and this is I guess how it’s supposed to be.'”
From now on, Wendy is determined to put herself first. Speaking in an exclusive clip obtained by People, she says, “We, as women, particularly if — we have families, you know, we’re taking care of children, we’re taking care of, you know, home, our husbands, we take care of everybody but ourselves… And it’s really unfortunate. And that — that is something that has no socioeconomic thing to it. No matter what — no matter what the woman’s status is, it seems like we’re all in the same boat… I’m not doing that anymore. Wendy first.”