'It felt like I was the middle of a fire': Wendy Williams recounts overheating, fainting, on live TV
— -- Wendy Williams said that she "was scared to death," after she fainted on live television during her talk show earlier this week, but assured her fans that she has since made a full recovery.
"I got hot," told ABC News' Amy Robach of what caused her tumble Tuesday that soon went viral on social media. "I was dehydrated according to the paramedics."
"I'm a woman of a particular age," the host of "The Wendy Williams Show" added. "I'm also going through menopause."
Williams, 53, who passed out after overheating in her Statue of Liberty Halloween costume, said that when she first realized that she was going to faint, she told herself, "Wendy, do two things."
"Fall pretty, cause this will never happen again, and go down with the crown," the television host added. "For people watching, when they saw me, you know, put my head, my hand up, it's cause I'm trying to make sure my crown is there."
"It was a beautiful fall," she quipped. "Unfortunately, we went to commercial ... so nobody saw it."
While Williams is able to recount her fall in a light-hearted manner now, she said at the time it was incredibly frightening.
She said she first started to feel like she was overheating "when we came back from the break."
"It felt like I was the middle of a fire," William said. "Starting down at my feet going all the way up to my top."
"Fainting is not something ... that I do," she added. "I got very scared, cause it was a live show."
She said she was especially concerned about the impact of her fall.
"I was more concerned with when I fall, am I going to crack my skull?" she said. "And the crew and the security here thought that the bug-eyed look I gave was part of a stunt, cause I'm always doing tricks."
She added that because her crew thought she was doing a trick, "nobody came out until I hit the ground."
"Then, oh my gosh, chaos ensued," Williams said. "The studio audience went wild."
"I fell with the crown," Williams said. "But I fell ... booty first, then rolled onto my back, and then clunked my head on the floor."
The TV personality told ABC News that she has since gone to her doctor and made a full recovery, saying, "I'm fine, including blood work."
"I have no pain," she added. "My head doesn't hurt. I don't have a lump on my head. I never got one headache."
Williams said that she was touched by the support she received from friends and fans of her show.
"More people were concerned about me than I actually thought that they would be," she said, thanking her supporters for the "flowers and the well wishes."
Williams, who said that she has never missed a day of work in 9 seasons of her hit talk show, said she looks forward to coming into work on Monday. She is also getting ready to celebrate the milestone 1,500th episode of her show on Nov. 13.
"That's why I got up off the floor and came out here and closed out the show," she said. "You're only as good as your last performance."
