Inside Wendy Williams’ Fight to Be Freed from Her Guardianship: ‘This System Is Broken’ (Exclusive)

Wendy Williams is working to take back control of her future.

As of May 2022, ex The Wendy Williams Show the host, 59, lives under legal guardianship that oversees both her finances and health. And for the last 10 months, she was in an unknown institution to deal with cognitive problems.

Williams’ family says her court-appointed legal guardian (whose identity is being withheld) is the only person who currently has unfettered access to her. They say that she can call them, but they themselves cannot call her.

“How did she go from this aunt or sister that we love and is healthy one minute to this person who is in and out of the hospital?” Williams’ sister Wanda Finnie asks in this week’s PEOPLE cover story, “How is that system better than the system the family could have put in place? I don’t know. I know this system is broken. I hope that at some point, Wendy becomes strong enough to can speak for himself.”

Wendy Williams Family Breaks Silence On Her ‘Shocking And Heartbreaking’ Struggles Over The Last 3 Years (Exclusive)

Cover story by Wendy Williams of PEOPLE.

Williams — who has struggled with alcoholism and health problems including Graves’ disease (an autoimmune disorder that can cause swollen eyes) and lymphedema (a condition that causes swelling in the feet) — was named her legal guardian months after Wells Fargo froze her accounts in 2022. The ruling The account freeze order came after Williams’ financial advisor at the time claimed she was “on the mend,” according to Williams’ court filings.

In January 2022, Wells Fargo successfully petitioned a New York court to place Williams under temporary financial guardianship, allegedly because she was at risk of financial exploitation due to cognitive issues.

Where is Wendy Williams? The shocking document reveals the star’s struggles with money problems, health problems and alcohol

Williams’ 23-year-old son Kevin Hunter Jr., who she shares with ex-husband Kevin Hunter, has come under scrutiny for his spending, but he vehemently denies abusing her in an upcoming Lifetime documentary Where is Wendy Williams? “I never took it [money] without her consent,” he says. (Kevin Jr. declined to comment for this story; Wanda says he is still financially supported by his mother.)

When Williams was appointed guardian in May 2022, her family says they didn’t know why the court made that decision. Court records are also sealed.

“All I know is that Wendy and her team walked into the courtroom one way and walked out, and the family was completely shut out,” says Wanda, 65.

Wendy Williams with her niece Alex in the Lifetime documentary Where is Wendy Williams?.

For life

A month after a guardian was appointed, Williams was caught on camera passing out in a Louis Vuitton store, drunk. She entered wellness for two months starting in September 2022, but the following March, after traveling to LA, her manager and jeweler Will Selby says in the documentary that she was “disheveled” and persistent in her drinking.

I think the film is a great illustration of what life was like for someone who was under guardianship in this particular case, he says. Where is Wendy Williams? executive producer Mark Ford. “Just because you’re in foster care doesn’t mean you get 24/7 care, and I don’t think it’s a concern just to leave someone in an apartment. When we met Wendy’s family, it was clear to us that this was a beautiful family, and the question remained in our minds : Why can’t the family be a part of Wendy’s life? Why can’t the family serve as her guardians? I still don’t quite have those answers.”

Wendy Williams in cognitive rehab facility, doing ‘really great’, family says (exclusive)

Although Ford says the documentary crew tried to get the caretaker to talk to them, “every time they hung up on them” when they reached out to them.

“So we couldn’t really ask the questions we’d like to ask, like, ‘What goes on here on a daily basis? And why, for example, is there no food in Wendy’s apartment?’ Simple things that we’ve only been able to see because we’ve been there so often,” says Ford.

Neither Williams’ guardian nor Wells Fargo responded to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Wendy Williams is being pushed in a wheelchair in September 2021.

BACKGRID

Producers halted filming of the documentary in April 2023 after finding Williams in her apartment with her eyes rolled back in her head and worked with Selby to call a caregiver for Williams to get help. Ford says, “The custodian came and responded to our pleas … to get her to a safer place.”

Right now, the power over when Williams can leave the facility, if at all, rests in the hands of her guardian.

In the wake of high-profile cases like Britney Spears’, legal guardian and guardianship systems in the US are being re-examined. The New York State Assembly proposed legislation in 2022 to expedite the hearing process when a guardianship appeal is filed. (Williams’ family is not currently contesting her case.)

Sherri Shepherd says she’s ‘genuinely worried’ about Wendy Williams: ‘She’s going through a lot’

Ford says the filmmakers went ahead with the documentary to shed light on Williams’ situation: “We asked ourselves almost every day, ‘Is this helping Wendy or is this hurting her?’ And in the end we felt that it was helping her. This is about the custody system and how it can be improved.”

For more on Wendy Williams, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE magazine, on newsstands everywhere Friday, or subscribe here.

Investigative journalist Diane Dimond — who published a book about the guardianship system, We’re here to help: When custody goes wrongin September — says an estimated 2 million people currently live under court control.

“A guardian can be a family member, it can be your best friend, it can be a completely reliable ordinary citizen, so to speak,” says Dimond. “More and more, I’ve found, after researching this for eight or nine years now, judges are ignoring family members, ignoring friends, and going right to these professional, for-profit appointees, who are total strangers to these court residents. So within that , wards of the court lose all their civil rights. They no longer have the right to decide anything about their personal life or their financial life.”

Wendy Williams in March 2023.

T. JACKSON / BACKGRID

Because custody proceedings take place in an equity court, not a criminal or civil court, Dimond says “there is no legal process.”

“There is no trial, no right to present opposing witnesses,” she says. “Typically, a judge will just take the petition, rubber stamp it, appoint a guardian or custodian, and wash their hands of the case.”

Under guardianship, “you can no longer decide where you live, you can’t spend your money, you can’t vote, you can’t get married, you can’t decide which doctors you go to or which friends you can visit,” says Dimond. “You don’t have any rights. Someone on death row has more rights than someone under guardianship. I’m not exaggerating because at least I can hire my lawyer and I can make phone calls.”

Wendy Williams Takes Off Wig, Tears Up During Emotional Meetup With Blac Chyna In New Lifetime Doc (Exclusive)

Once a person is placed in custody, Dimond says, it can be difficult to get out.

“I’m honestly worried that Wendy will never get out of guardianship because when a judge establishes guardianship, it’s usually for life,” she says. “If we’re a society that really cares about protecting at-risk people, vulnerable people, then tell me why are there so many people sleeping outside on the streets in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago? We just seem to care they care about putting people who have some money into custody, and Wendy Williams has money.”

Still, Williams’ family hopes to be reunited. “[Wendy’s] the desire, as far as I understand it, is to be in Florida with my family,” says Wanda.

Wendy Williams with her son Kevin Jr. in Florida in 2021.

In the documentary, it is hinted that Williams wants out of her current situation, while Wanda is shown instructing her over the phone to write down every time her calls go unanswered, presumably to her guardian.

During recent phone conversations with Williams, Wanda’s daughter Alex, 33, says her aunt sounds “really great.”

“I haven’t heard my aunt sound this good in years,” she says. “Hearing my aunt now in terms of how clear she is, how focused she is on the importance of family and reality in terms of facing and understanding where she is physically, mentally and emotionally, it’s like a 180. I always just remind her when I talk to her on the phone that here there’s a world of people who love you, support you and want to see you back.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Where is Wendy Williams? premieres Saturday at 8pm and ends at the same time the next day on Lifetime.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education