Wendy Williams gets candid about her long-running daytime show as she shares an update on her life under conservatorship.
“For me, being on TV, I’m not going to lie, it was for the money,” Williams, 60, said Thursday, Jan. 16, on The breakfast clubher first interview since her dementia diagnosis went public in February 2024. “My root was working. Being on the radio is a godsend for me. And I was doing such great things on the radio.”
Wendy Williams makes a rare public appearance at son Kevin Hunter Jr.’s college graduation.
The Wendy Williams Show ran for 14 seasons beginning in 2008 and ending in 2022 after Williams contracted COVID and had health issues related to Graves’ disease. Williams began her career as a disc jockey after graduating from Northeastern University and worked at stations such as 98.7 KISS FM, Hot 97 and WBLS-FM, where she had her own syndicated show before launching a daytime TV program.
Williams entered court-ordered conservatorship in May 2022 after her financial advisor claimed she was “on the mend,” prompting Wells Fargo to freeze her accounts. Life documentary Where is Wendy Williams? filmed by Williams between August 2022 and April 2023, during which she dealt with various health issues and alcohol addiction after her talk show ended.
In September 2022, Williams checked into a wellness facility to help with her “general health issues.” Her medical team announced in February 2024 that Williams had been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) the previous year.
Marissa Jaret Winokur (left) and Wendy Williams on ‘The Wendy Williams Show’ on July 28, 2009 in New York City.
Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic
Speaking further The breakfast club On January 16, Williams denied the diagnosis.
“I’m not cognitively impaired, but I feel like I’m in prison, you know what I’m saying,” she told host Charlamagne tha God. “I’m in this place with people who are in their 90s and 80s and 70s. … These people, there’s something wrong with these people here on this floor. I’m clearly not.”
“Wendy Williams suffers from frontal lobe dementia, a degenerative brain disease for which there is no cure,” attorney Roberta Kaplan says in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.
Kaplan, who is suing A&E, Lifetime and the film’s producers Where is Wendy Williams? docuseries on behalf of Williams, continues, “As a result, a state court found her legally incompetent, meaning she is unable to make legal and financial decisions for herself. Unfortunately, due to her diagnosis, Wendy’s condition will only worsen over time and will need will care for her for the rest of her life, but as anyone who has had a family member with dementia knows, Wendy has her good days and her bad days the kind of exploitation we saw in the so-called documentary, as stated in our complaint.”
Never miss a story — subscribe to 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.
Williams, who lives in wellness in New York, said she can make phone calls but doesn’t have her usual electronics.
“I can call you, but you can’t call me, you know what I’m saying? Williams said. “I don’t even know what kind of phone I have, I’m just saying, when I call you, you listen, you don’t answer me, you can’t call me. Do you understand what I’m saying? I can’t sit on the phone and look at things. I don’t have a laptop. My life is my life is my damn life.”
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(1050x495:1052x497)/wendy-williams-son-kevin-1-484758c5dd0a48bca2fbc66ff5a28731.jpg)
Wendy Williams and son Kevin Hunter Jr. at her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on October 17, 2019 in Los Angeles.
David Livingston/Getty
The mother of Kevin Hunter Jr.’s 24-year-old son. she claimed that she did not have the means to buy herself a phone, nor any other basic luxury.
“I have $15,” Williams said. “I have 15 dollars, what does that mean? My money is in jail.”
She continued: “The carer asked someone to get me some nail polish, like normal things I like. ‘I need a new hairbrush; well this isn’t the one I want, but I guess this is the one I’m forced to use.'”
According to a source familiar with the situation, “Wells Fargo filed a motion with the court to appoint a third-party guardian for Wendy after the bank discovered that a family member in Florida was trying to access her money without authorization.”
Hunter Jr., whom Williams shares with ex-husband Kevin Hunter, has come under scrutiny for his spending, but in the documentary he vehemently denies abusing her: “I never took [money] without her consent.”
Wendy Williams seeks ‘personal space and peace’ amid ‘overwhelming’ response to dementia diagnosis (Exclusive)
In a Jan. 16 interview, Williams said she felt “like I’m in prison.”
“I’m definitely isolated, you know what I’m saying?” she said further The breakfast club. “And talking to these people who live here is not my cup of tea. They are good people, but I keep the door closed, I watch TV. I’m sitting here as my life goes by.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education