Wendy Williams Says She's Winning Battle with Lymphedema, Ready for Podcast

One thing ya know about Wendy Williams, she doesn't tiptoe around anything ... which is why she told us -- as only Wendy could -- about her ongoing medical struggles, and starting her new career.

Wendy joined us Tuesday on "TMZ Live" to tell us more about why she's turning her back on TV, for now, and instead, choosing to produce her own podcast -- and, for her, it comes down to time and money.

Sounds like she's been doing some homework, because she told us ... "When you're famous, podcasts will make more money for me, being famous, than doing the Wendy Williams Show."

She made it clear, she's "100 percent retired" from the grind of her daily TV show.

Wendy's still in the planning stages when it comes to exactly what she's going to dig into during the podcast -- although, as we first reported, she has some celeb guests in mind already. But, the biggest revelation she dropped on us was about her battle with lymphedema.

She had no issue holding up her foot to reveal just how swollen it is from the condition -- which is caused by a blockage in the lymphatic system. Wendy says she can only feel "maybe 5 percent of my feet" ... but also explained how she's not letting it slow her down.

To that point, we got video of her out in NYC Monday night, and she seemed to be moving pretty well.

Wendy says it was an amicable split from Debmar-Mercury, her TV show's production company, and while she swears she's done with TV -- she did admit there's one gig she'd still do ... but only as a guest host.