Heidi Montag is opening up about her vocal injury after getting eliminated from “The Masked Singer.”
During a recent interview with Fox News Digital, the 39-year-old former reality star shared how competing on the Fox competition series affected a vocal injury she had sustained before appearing on the show, explaining that it worsened during filming and that she would not have been able to continue even if she hadn’t been voted off.
“I had just had a vocal injury. I ended up with a hemorrhage on my vocal cords and I couldn’t talk for like weeks, a week before and weeks after,” she explained. “I’ve been having to have like vocal recovery. I’ve been to several ENTs. So I couldn’t have continued in the competition even if I got voted in. The injury was pretty significant.”
When she first began to feel symptoms of the injury, Montag said she initially “thought I was sick or something,” and that she “couldn’t even talk” because she lost her voice, adding, “It was pretty severe.”
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In terms of performing for “The Masked Singer,” the reality star said she had gone on “vocal rest for like a week” and then had to “do sign language and not talk,” in order to sing the songs.
“I couldn’t even rehearse those songs. So I had to just go out there and just give it my all and do what I could, and then I couldn’t talk after,” Montag said. “And then it was painful. Still, right now when I talk, it’s painful.”
WATCH: Heidi Montag had a hemorrhage on her vocal cords which left her unable to speak
She continued: “It feels almost like strep throat, but the hemorrhage is resolved, and now it’s just like I pulled these muscles because the helmet’s so heavy that I was like lifting up and singing, so I just strained it. There is a thing of trying too hard, I learned. Should have just taken it down a notch. It’s my own fault.”
Montag competed on the show as Snow Cone and was eliminated on the Wednesday, Feb. 25 episode after singing the Spice Girls song, “Wannabe.”
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“The Hills” star told Fox News Digital that if given the chance, she would “absolutely do it again” and “had been waiting to do the show” and “had been in talks from season one.”
“It was the most positive experience, from production to performing. It was just an incredible, uplifting, fun experience,” she said. “The biggest challenge is that costume. It is so heavy and big, and you can’t see. I mean, thank God for the backup dancers, they’re really like bodyguards moving you around because you can’t really get from place to place.”
On the night of her elimination, Montag was joined on stage by her husband, Spencer Pratt, who dressed up as Mr. Snow Cone, which she said meant that she didn’t have to keep it a secret from him, noting that it “would have been challenging.”
WATCH: Heidi Montag ‘would absolutely’ compete on ‘The Masked Singer’ again
When it comes to keeping it a secret from her kids, she explained that she had “been performing for the past year and going to rehearsal and singing, and so they were used to that.”
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“They love Snow Cone,” she said of her children. “It is the best thing I’ve ever done. They cheer [it] on it, they were so sad when I was voted off. My older son, who’s eight, was like, ‘I can’t watch.’ I’m like, ‘It’s okay.’ And then I said to him, ‘Do you wish I continued?’ and he’s like, ‘No, because then you wouldn’t have been with us as much.'”
In order to do the show, Montag shared that she “was having to commute to LA several times a week” and sometimes wouldn’t begin driving back home until 11 p.m., adding she was only “sleeping for like four or five hours,” in order to still be able to get her kids ready for school in the mornings.
WATCH: Heidi Montag did not have a hard time keeping her participation on ‘The Masked Singer’ a secret
Montag and her family are one of many families whose homes burned down in the Los Angeles wildfires in early 2025. They have since relocated to Santa Barbara.
The Masked Singer Season 14 airs new episodes on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on FOX, with streaming available the next day on Hulu and Disney+.