NEW YORK — Kristin Chenoweth is ready to tell the world she suffers from asthma. The Tony-winning actress says she’s suffered with the respiratory disorder for more than a decade, noticing it sometime after the 9/11 terror attacks on lower Manhattan.
“I haven’t really discussed the fact that I do suffer from asthma,” Chenoweth told The Associated Press last week. “I kept getting sick and couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t get my breath … that’s kind of my asthma journey, if you will.”
But Chenoweth was not correctly diagnosed for a few years. The entire time she did the smash Broadway musical, “Wicked,” when she originated the role of Glinda, she thought she was suffering from bronchitis and other respiratory issues.
“It was only after going to L.A. to do ‘Bewitched,’ and ‘The West Wing’ that I really got sick. But I wasn’t diagnosed with asthma,” Chenoweth recalls. “It wasn’t until I was doing the television series, ‘Pushing Daisies,’ that my doctor in Oklahoma diagnosed me.”