Losing her voice opened windows for Julie Andrews

It was “devastating” for Julie Andrews of The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins to lose her voice, but the actress says that it was then she discovered other pleasures in life.

Andrews had lost her voice as she went under the knife in 1997 to remove non-cancerous nodules on her vocal chords. 

“If it had happened earlier, it would have been really devastating,” Andrews told People magazine.  The actress revealed that her vocal trauma forced her to develop other creative outlets. 

“For a while, I was in total denial,” but then “I had to do something,” she added. The actress then also penned dozens of books, including the Dumpy the Dumptruck and The Very Fairy Princess children’s series with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton.

“What I say in the (‘The Sound of Music’) is true: a door closes and a window opens,” added Andrews.