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Ahead of the release of a Lifetime documentary that follows the troubled ex-daytime host, her sister and niece are questioning the legal process that brought them to this moment.
By Kevin Dolak
Wendy Williams’ family members are breaking their silence ahead of the upcoming Lifetime documentary on the state of the troubled former daytime host, whose multiple public mishaps pointed to an unraveling that now has her under a secretive guardianship.
Following the June 2022 cancellation of her hit daytime talk show related to health struggles, Williams is now living inside a facility under the financial control of a court-appointed guardian as her family wonders why they have been essentially shut out of her life, according to a new report from People and the two-night docuseries that is set to debut Feb. 24.
In April 2023, Williams, who had been remarkably candid as she struggled with her health and addictions, entered an unnamed facility to treat what her manager Will Selby says in the documentary are “cognitive issues.” Williams has the autoimmune disorder Graves’ disease and lymphedema, which is the buildup of fluid in soft body tissues; along with her alcohol addiction, these issues are documented in the new film. Her son, Kevin Hunter Jr., says in the film that Williams’ issues have been linked to her alcoholism by physicians.
Where exactly the facility is and why the self-made daytime TV icon’s family members cannot contact her directly is a mystery to her sister, Wanda, and niece Alex.
“The people who love her cannot see her,” Wanda, her older sister, tells the magazine. “I think the big is: How the hell did we get here?”
On Feb. 24, Lifetime is set to debut Where Is Wendy Williams?, which contains footage from roughly seven months of Williams’ tumultuous past few years, filmed up until she entered the facility. The film, on which Williams is an executive producer, was originally conceived as a behind-the-scenes look at the relaunch of her career via a new podcast, according to People. The crew began to follow the former radio shock jock and host of The Wendy Williams Show in late August 2022, but given her physical and mental state, quickly pivoted the focus to her struggles with addiction and autoimmune disorders.
As Williams’ show was beginning to slip away in early 2022 and her troubles deepened, she found her bank accounts were frozen. Williams’ then-financial adviser alleged in a New York court that she was of “unsound mind,” leading the bank Wells Fargo to petition to have Williams placed under a temporary financial guardianship. All of this was pushed through the legal system without input from Williams’ family, who tell People that the court records had been sealed.
“All I know is that Wendy and her team walked into the courtroom one way, and they walked out, and the family is completely excluded,” Wanda tells the magazine.
Williams remains in the facility today and is still unreachable by anyone other than her guardian, whose identity remains a mystery to her loved ones.
“How did she go from this aunt or sister that we love and is healthy one minute to this person who’s in and out of the hospital?” her sister asks, according to People. “How is that system better than the system the family could put in place? This system is broken.”
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