Wendy Williams plots return to TV after health struggles: 'Ready to get things rolling'

Wendy Williams at dinner last night eating dinner at Fresco By Scotto with her publicist Shawn Zanotti and manager Will Selby in NYC.  (Photos: Shawn Zanotti)
Wendy Williams, leaving dinner at Fresco By Scotto, last week in NYC. (Photos: Shawn Zanotti)
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Wendy Williams is itching to get back on TV — and to pursue her other projects — after taking time to focus on her health.

"Wendy is working on several projects," her publicist, Shawn Zanotti, tells Yahoo Entertainment. "She is ready to get things rolling and get back to being Wendy Williams."

She's physically preparing too with Zanotti sharing that the former Wendy Williams Show host "is focused on a holistic diet and works out regularly at the gym." Among her projects is the Wendy Experience podcast — her first big project since her TV show ended in June.

On Monday, a paparazzi posted a video of 58-year-old Williams, looking healthy and fit, while doing a Petco run in NYC ahead of a month long trip.

"I'm shopping for kitty litter," she said after the videographer followed her into the store. "I have a wax museum in Paris and one in California. I'm going for a week in Paris and then three weeks in California and then immediately fly back."

Once she's back, "I want to be on TV," she told the paparazzo, adding that she means on "Seth Meyers, Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, The View, stuff like that. I am formerly retired."

Williams shook up daytime for 13 seasons as host of her eponymous talk show. However, it ended in 2022 — with Williams sitting out the entire season due to personal problems, first related to her health followed by a financial battle.

In September, Williams checked into a wellness facility to work on her health. Once she left, she declared herself "back and better than ever."

In November, Williams made her first public appearance since treatment at her one-time radio station's annual WBLS Circle of Sisters event. There, she talked about having lymphedema, which is tissue swelling, specifically in her feet but she said she refused to show up in a wheelchair. (She has been photographed by paparazzi using one on different occasions.) She also has Graves disease, an autoimmune disease, that causes overstimulation of the thyroid, which can lead to puffy eyes, anxiety, fatigue, insomnia and elevated blood pressure.

She told the crowd she was "ready to do something new with my life" when she exited the show. "It was really becoming a burden after 14 years." She also said she was looking forward to travel, saying, "I'm going to take a year of my life to fly and do and see things I've never done before ... while I'm young enough," she said.